Opinions

Another week and another knee jerk reaction from The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Faced with the prospect that take up of Green Deal home improvements could be as low as 1.5 percent DECC – which would much prefer to be just plain DE – has panicked and promised to throw £125 million at householders in an attempt to ‘kick start’ the program.

An apparent shock energy policy announcement at Prime Minister’s questions has plunged the Coalition Government into crisis management mode as Labour accuses Government of making up an energy policy “like something out of The Thick Of It”, in reference the BBC comedy satirising the manipulation of hapless ministers by the government spin machine.

Many people aren’t aware that subsidies have long been part of the energy sector. We started having subsidies for fossil fuels a long time ago, and we still have them today.

This year’s Solar Power UK event has come to an end. After an incredible 4,500 visitors, 178 exhibitors and 69 seminar speeches, it’s fair to say that the solar industry is still a significant force in the UK.

Solar Power UK 2012 is finally over. A stunning 4,500 visitors travelled out to the NEC in Birmingham to come out and support the UK solar industry with over 40 percent of all exhibitors rebooking for next year’s event.

Today saw a record-breaking 1,700 people flood through the gates of Hall Five of the NEC for yet another jam-packed day of UK solar action.

The first day of Solar Power UK has seen over 1,400 visitors, 179 exhibitors, 32 seminars and a whole host of solar announcements take place. Today’s turnout and general levels of optimism amongst attendees proves once more what a resilient industry solar in the UK is becoming.

In a nutshell, microinverters convert direct current (DC) into alternating current (AC) for the grid directly from each individual solar panel, rather than through a central string inverter system, increasing the productivity, reliability and ease of installation of solar systems. The idea is not a new one, but for decades microinverter technology struggled to get off the ground.

So “what actually happens during G59 commissioning” is a question I was asked earlier this week. It came up, as we had been doing exactly that, deep in the bowels of Kings Cross Station.

The newly-introduced feed-in tariff (FiT) degression model means that, yet again, the amount of money a household gets for each kWh of solar energy they put back in the utility grid has declined. From November 2012, systems smaller than 4kWp will only receive 15.44p/kWh.