Update 1/8/16 – Solar has once again generated more electricity across a whole month than coal. The estimated 1,273 gigawatt hours (GWh) of power generated by solar during July was two-thirds higher than the 778GWh output from coal. The charts below have been updated. The UK’s solar panels generated more electricity than coal in May 2016, the first-ever calendar month to pass the milestone, Carbon Brief analysis shows. The feat was repeated in July.
Renew Economy 3rd August 2016 read more »
Although the solar PV installation rate has fallen by more than 70% since the UK-Govt. cut the feed-in tariff last year, Professor Roaf says that this can be remedied by greater use of battery storage for solar energy. She explained: “My solar roof helped light the spark that started the UK solar revolution – now more than 20 years later – over 1 million people across the country are living in houses powered by solar energy. “My PV roof system cost me £28,000 and to build it I needed to change Local Planning and Building Regulations Guidance on PV roofs and partner with Southern Electric to pioneer the first grid-connection agreement developed by an energy company in Britain. Today you can get a roof with 4Kwp of PV for your home for less than £5,000. “The PV system then had a 66-year payback. Today similar PV systems could cost less than £5,000 to install on an existing home and with feed-in tariff support on adjacent homes have a payback of around 6-10 years. “The UK now has over 8GW of installed PV energy of which around 2.3 GW is in domestic systems. In contrast, the UK has only 9.4GW of installed nuclear capacity much of which is scheduled for decommissioning over the next decade or so.” The addition of battery capacity into the domestic systems may add £2-3,000 to the cost of the basic array and will most likely appeal to particular market demographics. “This must include those who are approaching retirement and not only may have available lump sums to invest in reducing their dependence on irrationally and escalating domestic energy costs and establishing for themselves a degree of energy security that no other source of energy offers them. “For this demographic it is easy to predict a significant uptake of the addition options for battery inclusions, not least to their own existing solar arrays, particularly at the point of upgrading their existing invertor.
Scottish Energy News 3rd Aug 2016 read more »