Opinions

The government’s push for community-owned energy projects presents some intriguing opportunities for solar developers. Abid Kazim explores the financial options for community programmes

The Department of Energy and Climate Change recently commissioned Grant Thornton and Pöyry to gather feedback on the government’s Electricity Market Reform programme. Gaynor Hartnell outlines her responses to the current state of the CfD for solar.

Jerry Hamilton argues that DCLG’s recent announcement allows greater use of non-domestic premises for renewable energy generation

As one of only five solar companies who won a CfD following the inaugural auction, Kareen Boutannat from Lightsource Renewable Energy asks if CfD is capable of supporting utility-scale solar in the near future.

Solar PV and storage are championed as the Holy Grail for true mainstream adoption of renewables. Gaynor Hartnell warns that the solar sector must not ignore wind’s potential and the importance of existing energy infrastructure.

Despite promises from the government, the ‘green rocket-boosters’ that have supposedly been put under the commercial rooftop sector have failed to fire. Michael Kaeflein delves into the results of his end user survey to find out why progress remains slow

Despite its much-vaunted benefits and undoubted potential, the commercial rooftop solar industry has yet to take off as many would have hoped. Few notable projects have gotten off the ground and the struggles of tempting companies to fit solar arrays to the roofs of their facilities have been well documented.

For me, Ecobuild was a flying visit. I had just four hours on the first day to get around and see what I could before hopping back on the train to Sheffield. While the whole of Ecobuild is fascinating for me, the project for which I work is based around solar PV, so that’s the quarter where I spent most of my time.

The government will soon be responding to the Shared Ownership Taskforce report, published last November. It may even be published by the end of this week. It will be interesting to see which interpretation of the report it responds to, as there seem to be two.

The government will soon be responding to the Shared Ownership Taskforce report, published last November. It may even be published by the end of this week. It will be interesting to see which interpretation of the report it responds to, as there seem to be two.