Swedish furniture giant Ikea plans to start offering residential solar arrays from its stores across nine countries including the UK and the Netherlands in 2016/17, in a bid to provide households with an opportunity to reduce energy costs. Homeowners across the world will soon be able to purchase solar systems at sales points within Ikea stores, after a recent pilot trial received positive customer reaction for its simplicity and transparency.
Edie 5th April 2016 read more »
Anglian Water has stepped up its use of renewable energy with five new solar farms on its sites. The installations will produce 1.8 million kilowatt hours of energy every year – enough to power 500 homes. They are based at five sites with a high energy use: Bedford water recycling centre (WRC), Witham WRC near Chelmsford, Whilton WRC near Daventry, Rayleigh West WRC near Basildon and Hall Water Treatment Works near Lincoln. Anglian Water energy manager Matt Pluke said: “This is very exciting news for us. This is yet another way we can reduce our energy costs and reduce our impact on the climate. “Across some of our water recycling centres we’ve already installed a fleet of combined heat and power engines, which create energy from the gas released as a by-product of the water recycling process. “The next step was to identify a number of energy-intensive sites where we can create clean energy from solar panels. By using this space, which would otherwise stand empty, we will be getting the best value out of the land we own, whilst reducing our carbon footprint.”
Utility Week 5th April 2016 read more »