Opinions

As part of Solar Media’s deep-dive research analysis into the full-audit trail of the 630 completed solar farms in the UK with capacity rating >250kW, the Solar Intelligence team is shortly to release the first of our Top-10 tables, starting with EPCs.

The UK’s ground-mount solar industry has been providing excellent business opportunities for site planners and planning consultants, in the past few years. However, changes by the government to renewable obligations (RO) subsidies available for both the solar industry and the onshore wind industry are now creating a greater number of individual site opportunities across a much wider range of planning firms.

The government’s recent attack on onshore wind farms has been a long time coming, the Conservative manifesto having stated that in the event of an election win the party would end “new” public subsidy for them and let local people have the final say on wind farm applications.

Ever since large-scale solar hit the UK, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has struggled with keeping track of cumulative solar PV capacity deployed in the UK. Finlay Colville explains why this has been tricky and why Solar Intelligence’s data solves the problem.

The Solar Intelligence team at Solar Media can exclusively reveal that Inazin Power – one of the longest-established leading project developers in the UK ground-mount sector – is expanding its market presence in the UK solar industry through large commercial rooftops.

The Conservatives have put in motion legislation that will seek to halt the development of onshore wind in the UK. Although solar could have one less competitor in the CfDs, Peter Bennett questions if government playing favourites with low-carbon energy is more damaging

Ben Ainsile Racing’s new multi-million pound HQ has been designed specifically with solar in mind. Liam Stoker finds out what drove the team to set a new sustainability benchmark

From Aberystwyth to Aberdeen, from Norfolk to Northumberland, from Truro to Trimdon Station: are large-scale solar farms in the UK poised for northerly expansion in 2015?

With energy rises at an all-time high and the fuel poverty issue escalating, consumers are becoming increasingly savvier to the benefits of investing in sustainable products – with solar power being central to this. Jerry Hamilton considers how the results of a recent market survey indicate consumer confidence in the solar technology and the birth of the UK’s solar revolution.

As the post-election dust settles, the NextEnergy Solar Fund’s Abid Kazim looks at what the surprise result means for the PV investment community