Solar Power First

Just when you think you’ve heard of everything with regards to solar innovation, news of a car park where every space is roofed by a solar panel comes and opens your eyes to new possibilities! This is the project recently announced by Aviva, and supported by the Scottish Government, is one of the UK’s biggest solar carport and energy storage facilities. This project covers 342 car park spaces alongside around 50 electric vehicle charging stations. The project is estimated to lead to an annual saving of nearly 400 tonnes of carbon emission, equivalent to powering 500 homes for a full year. It means Aviva’s office can go “off grid” for around  five hours per day at peak national grid times, with surplus energy stored in solar batteries for later use. Aviva employs 2,000 people in Scotland, with around half of those at their Perth office, home to its property claims centre for commercial and personal property.  Nick Amin, who is Aviva’s chief operating officer, shared: “It’s vit...

  2020 has been a year that will live long in the memory, sadly not for the best reasons. That said, many people, and many industries, have shown great resilience to help build towards a better future. We believe that the continued progression in the adoption of solar energy is one such positive. Reports in a number of national newspapers this week have claimed that 2020’s output in terms of the amount of energy generated from solar panels across the UK is already well past the previous record.  Since detailed records began around 10 years ago, there has been an upward trajectory for the most part, but even with the hardships faced by many, solar output has shown no sign of slowing. In fact, some of the specific elements of 2020 may even have helped aid solar generation.  In addition to a very sunny spring in the UK, there was also a significant reduction in pollution in many areas due to lockdowns. If you look at the industry 10 years ago, solar panels were cost-prohibi...

When it comes to the global solar investment race, we’re used to seeing China, the USA and a few others at the top of the list, but it was exciting to see India make a huge commitment to solar in recent days. The government of India has announced a funding package that includes over £450m - or 45 BILLION Indian rupees! - of investment over the next five years. This funding will be put into the production of solar panels and solar storage as part of developing high-efficiency PV projects across the country. This solar investment is part of a move by India’s cabinet to help boost domestic manufacturers, become globally competitive in a number of new industries, create economies of scale and increase exports.  The government said their solar investment “will incentivise domestic and global players to build large-scale solar PV capacity in India and help India leapfrog in capturing the global value chains for solar PV manufacturing”. A further 181 billion rupees, around £1.8bn has bee...

As we move further and further with the renewable energy revolution, the hope is that not only will we see individual homes or offices drawing the majority of their energy from solar generation, but also entire infrastructure. That’s why this latest piece of news we have to share is so exciting. It was recently announced that solar rail specialist Riding Sunbeams had been awarded over £2.5m as part of the South East Local Enterprise Partnership’s £85 million portion of the UK Government’s new ‘Getting Building Fund’. The grant will be utilised to build a solar farm which will in turn power the rail network between Eastbourne and London. It’s a hugely significant step to see such a prominent rail line rely on solar. The overall scheme is a £900 million UK-wide purse that is focused on funding local infrastructure projects, particularly those which drive economic growth and support green energy after the Covid-19 pandemic. The 3.75MW solar farm, known as Cuckmere Community Solar Farm, ha...

  We like to keep an eye on a range of different industry factors that are impacting solar for better or worse, and one potentially worrying one that caught our eye recently is to do with the availability of glass for solar production in the coming months.  Some of the world’s biggest solar power companies have stated that a shortage of glass is both increasing costs and delaying the speed of their production of new panels, which is hindering China’s - and possibly other nations - plans to accelerate their shift towards clean and renewable energy. Price levels for the type of glass that coats solar panels have risen by a staggering 71% since July, with glass manufacturers struggling to produce it fast enough to keep more than a week’s worth of sales in inventory, according to Daiwa Capital Markets.  The shortage comes as the solar industry turns toward bifacial panels, which increase both power output and glass requirements. Solar panel producers like Longi Green Energy ...

Purchasing your own yacht has long been a signature move for those who move into the multi-millionaire bracket, but are you aware that a new breed of eco-friendly yachts are now on offer? I’m not suggesting that any of us are in the market to buy one, although I don’t want to discount the possibility that we may have multi-millionaires within our readership! Either way, we thought it was an interesting story to read about some of the environmentally-friendly customisations that can be made to modern yachts. One such yacht that has been ghe 60 Sunreef Power Eco yacht also has an electric engine and could be the future of environmentally friendly sea travel for those willing to splash out on a catamaran. The yacht is said to provide silent and vibration-free cruising. Its twin engines are powered by battery storage. They are said to allow for up to six hours of cruising in silence before they'll need charging with further solar energy. The batteries can also power all the appliances ...

As the solar industry continues to become more established, one area that is now becoming an increasing consideration is that of recycling. Whether it is homeowners who joined the solar revolution 15 to 20 years ago and now need their panels replaced, or large-scale projects who are replacing their solar panels and solar battery storage for the latest technology, solar recycling is now a key provision. A recent report from Infiniti Research Limited has been monitoring the solar panel recycling market and found that it is poised to grow by around £180m over the next five years, growing at around 28% compound annual growth rate during the forecast period.  The report on the solar panel recycling market provides a holistic analysis on market size and forecasts, key trends, growth drivers and challenges, including a supplier analysis covering around 25 suppliers. One of its main conclusions is that the solar recycling market is being driven by the growth in solar PV panel installation...

While many industries have been hit hard by the impacts of COVID-19, with some even becoming obsolete, solar is certainly one that is continuing to grow in its impact and importance. There are many countries who are leading the way with solar panel production and widespread implementation, but it is China who has been making many of the most large-scale moves, often alongside international partners. This is certainly the case with a new production centre opening in Brazil. The Brazilian arm of Amerisolar, a Chinese maker of solar panels, will open a new factory in early 20201, with the new site it is building being near the southeastern Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte, as reported by Brazilian media outlet Estado de Minas.  The Brazilian newspaper says the factory will employ 100 people directly and help create up to 2,200 new jobs in other companies. The story also says that the factory is meant to produce 30,000 panels a month, with around half of them likely to be used for exp...

  We’re always interested to hear about new innovations with regards to solar, so when we heard about the idea of generating solar power in space, it’s fair to say we were intrigued! Millions of British homes could be powered by a giant solar power station 24,000 miles up in space within three decades, under proposals being considered by the government. Under the plan, a system of five huge satellites – each more than a mile wide, covered in solar panels and weighing several thousand tonnes – would deliver laser beams of energy down to Earth. These would provide up to 15% of the country’s electricity supply by 2050, enough to power 4 million households – with the first space energy expected to be delivered as soon as 2040. Each satellite would be made from tens of thousands of small modules, propelled into space through 200 separate rocket launches, and then steadily assembled by robots once they are in orbit!   The satellites would use thousands of mirrors to concentrate the ...

  With more and more local councils across the UK switching onto the value of solar panels in both environmental and economic terms, it’s exciting to be able to share regular news of new councils joining the solar revolution. This week it’s Bury’s turn! Bury council have announced a new solar panel project involving the installation of 69 solar panels at the council’s HQ at Bradley Fold. These 69 panels have each been attached to the south-facing roof of their vehicle depot. The project, carried out by Solarcrown, will see the solar panels generate roughly 22,000kWh of electricity per year, which in turn will reduce carbon emissions by around 10 tonnes annually. The installation will cost in the region of £27,000, an outlay that Bury Council expects to recoup within eight years, before going on to save a further £140,000 in electricity bills over the project’s lifetime. This is in addition to the savings already being enjoyed after the installation of LED lighting at their site in ...

  In an interesting announcement from Sudan’s Ministry of Energy, a yet-to-be-announced solar company from the UAE has agreed to construct several large scale solar plants across the African nation.  Khairy Abdul Rahmanhas, who is Sudan’s minister of energy and mining, met with the general director of the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development , Mohamed Saif Al Suwaidi, last week to sign a memorandum of understanding for the construction of these solar power plants.  In an exciting move, these new projects will become Sudan’s first solar parks and will offer a combined solar capacity of 500 MW in Sudan. The Sudanese government plan to purchase the generated electricity at a competitive price over the next 20 years from these solar parks which will be built by UAE-based companies.  Sudan has, up to now, had one of the lowest levels of solar production in Africa, despite having one of the best levels for solar radiation of any nation in the world, so it was a prime location fo...

We’re always on the lookout for the more weird and wonderful locations that are being made use of as solar projects, so we were definitely interested to hear that Australia’s largest free-range chicken farm launched a big solar and storage system earlier this month. The chicken-adjacent project offers 1.4 MW of rooftop solar and 2.28 MWh of energy storage, utilising five lithium-ion batteries. The project in question is the Riverlands Free Range poultry farm in South Australia, which happens to be the nation’s largest free-range chicken farm. AAM – the investment group which owns the farm – have made the move to add 1.4 MW of solar panels and a 2.28 MWh Tesla lithium-ion battery system alongside an announcement that it is the largest energy storage system installed on a commercial farm in Australia. AAM’s managing director, Garry Edwards and his colleague Ben Edser revealed that the entire solar sustainability project cost in the region of 5 million Australian dollars, which is roughly...