solar

The sale of three UK solar farms is underway after European Solar Farms, a division of European Energy, signed a conditional deal with the subsidiary of a Danish pension provider.

The UK’s energy policy will now be a decided by a new department headed up by former communities minister Greg Clark, who has been appoint secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy.

The scheduled rise in business rates on companies owning solar installations on their properties has been raised in the House of Commons, with shadow energy minister Barry Gardiner accusing the government of “sleeping on the job”.

Solar Power Portal runs through this week’s people news from within UK solar, including new hires at Lightsource and Mongoose as well as partnership drives from SOLARWATT and Solar Owners Club.

Fresh rumours of the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) being folded into the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) have emerged, with energy minister Andrea Leadsom doing nothing to dispel them during this morning’s House of Commons session.

SOLARWATT is in search of a number of premium installer partners across the UK as it prepare its entry into the market later this year.

Solar asset management provider GreenPowerMonitor has been bought by international certification and advisory firm DNV GL in a deal that will give the Spanish firm access to a new global network of renewable energy projects.

A further three Chinese manufacturers have been pulled from the minimum import price (MIP) after they were found to be selling in the European Union at rates below those stipulated by the price undertaking.

Will Cottrell, chairman of Brighton Energy Coop, refutes Department of Energy and Climate Change evidence that the cost of installed solar in the UK has risen and insists installers are innovating to make the new model work.

4eco has become the latest company to enter insolvency following cuts to government subsidies for domestic solar enacted earlier this year.