Solar Power First

We’re always happy to hear of different industries going more “green” as they look to minimise any environmental impact related to their work, but we must admit, our favourite solar-related story of recent times is one we recently heard about the man who is helping to turn ice cream vans solar powered! The man in question is a farmer, David Baker of Styles Farm near Minehead to be specific. He came up with the idea for using solar power to run his ice cream vans after customers at some of the events they catered to were worried about the diesel fumes coming from their existing vans. The solar panels that he has added to the vans are able to power the freezers, the ice-cream makers and the van’s coffee machine. David Baker’s ice cream company are present at over 160 shows across the five months of an average year, with the new solar-powered vans able to produce up to 500 ice creams an hour, matching the output of a traditional ice cream van. A prototype van ran for four days on solar at...

For those considering solar panels, the same few questions often pop up. One of them is with regards to how much energy solar panels produce in a day. It makes sense that you’d want to be sure of exactly what you can expect to generate, electricity-wise. Solar power offers a clean, reliable and renewable energy alternative to traditional methods of powering a home. Living in the UK, you might be worried that the weather is not ideal for solar panels and the generation of solar power, but there is good news. You don’t need sunshine, just daylight! This guide has been put together to explain the processes involved and to highlight the real benefits of solar power in the UK, especially when combined with a solar battery. But more on that later. As the solar panels do their job, they generate energy during the day that can be used towards powering your home. But how much? How Much Electricity Does a Solar Panel Produce? It is hard to give an exact figure for your home, as depending on the...

Across the world, it is estimated that hundreds of millions of birds die as a result of collisions with man-made objects such as windows, telephone masts, wind turbines and planes engines. In many cases this is because the bird has seen a reflection of the sky in an object and not realised there was anything there at all. Ok, that’s sad, you may be thinking, but how does that relate to solar? Well, as the popularity and frequency of solar panels increases across the globe, so do the amount of birds meeting their final moment during a collision with a solar panel.  This problem has been particularly noted in the US, where estimates suggest over 130,000 birds a year die in collisions with solar equipment. So much so, that the key US governmental body the Department of Energy (DoE) have awarded a $1.3m grant to Argonne National Laboratory as they look to develop an automatic bird monitoring system to chart the impact of solar panels on avian life. Adam Szymanski, one of Argonne’s lead...

  Chances are, very few of us will have heard of Professor Henry Snaith before, but if his new solar panels take off in the way some are suggesting they will, he could soon be a household name - in the solar industry at least! After completing his bachelor’s degree in physics, Prof Snaith did a PhD in photovoltaics at Cambridge. In 2013, Nature, a British weekly scientific journal, named him on its list of ‘ten people who mattered’, in recognition of his next gen solar power research. He also became one of the youngest-ever Fellows of The Royal Society in 2015. “As a child I was very aware of global warming, the impact we’ve had and the problems of intensive farming and deforestation. It’s always been my agenda and I’ve been driven by that. After my undergraduate studies I wanted to work on something useful for society, and I thought energy was a big issue we needed to solve.” That lifelong passion for the environment and depth of study into the solar energy topics has paid off fo...

A group of private and public sector organisations have decided to make a major contribution towards helping Devon become one of the first counties to become net-zero. Their big initiative is to establish a solar panel group-buying scheme as part of their new Carbon Plan, which outlines a strategy with several different ideas for Devon to move towards the day it becomes carbon neutral. Partnering with group buying experts iChoosr Ltd, the team at Devon Climate Emergency (DCE) are providing homeowners around Devon with the option to buy high-quality solar panels for their home at a price that includes a bulk-buy discount.  The initiative is being led by Devon County Council with the support and partnership of ten different Devon planning authorities, namely East Devon, Mid Devon, North Devon, Exeter City Council, South Hams, Teignbridge District Council, Torridge District Council, West Devon Borough Council, Dartmoor National Park Authority and Exmoor National Park Authority. It’s e...

We're always happy to see different industries make use of solar energy as a way of moving towards a greener future, so it was great to read recently that Scottish Water have spent somewhere in the region of £450,000 adding around 1,300 solar panels to one of their water treatment sites, servicing a significant portion of Scotland. Scotland is really setting a standard for many countries in the world with its desire to move towards net zero emissions as soon as possible, with Scottish Water playing a key part in that, with their commitment to carbon neutrality extending not only to how they generate and use power for their sites, but also how they operate their vehicles, with their publicly-stated aim to operate a fully emissions-free fleet of vehicles by 2040. Such is Scottish Water’s commitment to renewable energy, it actually has a commercial subsidiary named Scottish Water Horizons, an entity that works to invest in renewable technologies, with this current project being its th...

As you consider whether or not to purchase solar panels and a solar battery for your home, it may be worth finding out a little bit more with regards to the mechanics of a solar battery and how it works, in order to give you a better understanding of how much benefit the addition of a solar battery could provide to you. Most people are now fairly familiar with solar panels and how they go about taking in sunlight and converting it into solar energy for use in the home, but many people are perhaps less aware of how solar batteries work. Solar batteries are much newer on the scene in terms of being used regularly in homes, but they have gained popularity in recent years and with good reason when you see the benefits they can offer. In essence, where the solar battery offers the most advantage is in being able to store the solar energy generated by your solar panels and keep hold of it for the exact time that you need to use it in the home. This would most usually be seen in your solar ba...

As solar panels continue to grow in popularity around the UK, many people will be wondering whether solar is the right option for their home.  With this in mind, we thought we’d take a look at some of the key benefits of solar panels, so that you can make a decision on whether they are an ideal option for you. Financial savings The primary benefit for many homes will be that of making a financial saving through reducing your annual energy bill. This is understandable at any time, but particularly at the present moment, when there is so much financial uncertainty and energy bills also continue to rise. While there is an initial outlay for the purchase of your solar panels - as the free schemes which saw outside installers offering free solar panel installation in return for controlling your energy supply are largely gone - this outlay can often be spread over flexible payment terms.  Spreading the cost of solar panels allows you to make savings immediately, which can then be us...

Solar batteries offer a range of benefits when installed at a domestic property. Here, we have put together a short guide to offer you all the key information at your fingertips before choosing the right domestic solar battery storage option for your home, including the solar panel cost. As solar panels have become more effective in generating energy for homes, and solar panel cost has come down, solar panels have become a more popular option. Adding even more benefit is the ability of a domestic solar battery to be able to store the surplus solar energy produced. This allows homeowners to use stored energy that is generated during the day , to power a home at night. By adding a solar battery to your solar panels, you will have a larger initial outlay, but you can see much more benefit in reducing your energy bills and lowering your carbon footprint.  What does a solar panel and battery system do? Most people are familiar with solar panels, with a huge increase in the number of in...