Latest Blogs
Scientists continue to produce more and more evidence showing both the dangers of global warming, and its link to our continued over-production of carbon dioxide. This article examines exciting new research that demonstrates methods being developed to safely capture excess carbon dioxide, which - together with a shift to renewable energy - could help in our battle against global warming.
We continue to enjoy huge advances in solar PV panel and renewable energy storage technology. Scientists in China have recently demonstrated that solar cells coated with graphene can harness rain to generate electricity in the absence of sunlight.
Development of these into solar panels that work in the absence of sunlight, may provide an even more effective alternative to fossil fuels for people in the UK, and other rainy parts of the world.
People interested in switching to solar panels have until 14th January 2016 to complete their applications, in order to benefit from the current feed-in tariff scheme.
Representatives from 195 countries have gathered for the Paris Climate Summit. This article explains why it is vital that they agree on a way to tackle global warming and climate change.
As 2016 promises to be a pivotal year in the development and sales of batteries for the storage of renewable energy, we take a look at steps that GE and E.ON are taking to integrate batteries into both the large-scale and domestic solar power market.
Permission for a new solar farm in Buckinghamshire has been refused by Wycombe District Council. This blog looks at the future of solar parks together with solar PV rooftop panels in the UK.
Recent Government Energy policy changes have led to energy projects being put on hold, as investors are reluctant to finance them. Unless this is addressed, energy supplies will struggle meet the demands of the national grid, and the cost of energy from the grid will cost households around £120 more per year.
Buried waste in our landfill sites decomposes anaerobically to generate methane which is 23 times more damaging for the environment than CO2. The UK is starting to find alternatives to landfill in order to meet our emissions targets.
Buckinghamshire has now started to process some of its rubbish to generate electricity that can be fed back into the grid.
Storage of solar energy could provide practical and financial solutions in our move away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy. This article examines hydroelectric pumped storage systems, cryogenic storage and lithium batteries.
In the next decade there could be a catastrophic shortage of power in the UK. This could be overcome with renewable energy with continuing drop in price of solar panels.
Wycombe District council will this month receive a planning proposal for the development of a Solar Farm, with acres of solar panels, on greenbelt land in Little Marlow, Buckinghamshire.
Fifty seven percent of the world’s population currently has no access to the internet. Google are planning to launch a fleet of solar-powered balloons, containing wireless routers, to hover at altitude and provide internet to remote and rural areas of the world that are not currently on-line, and offer the security of a stable internet service in the event of natural disasters.
This week the UK Government announced that all coal-fired energy plants will close in the UK by 2025. They aim to have reliable, cost-effective energy and to reduce carbon emissions. The government intend to switch to gas-fuelled power plants as a replacement. Environmental groups have welcomed the phasing out of coal but they are wary of it being superseded by gas-plants instead of a shift in focus to more sustainable renewable energy.
A new report from the International Energy Agency has shown that in 2014 over half the world’s new power generation plants were for renewable energy. This suggests that renewable energy choices such as solar, wind and biomass power plants are becoming a more popular option for nations looking to increase their power generation.
Construction of the world’s largest solar power complex is underway near the Sahara desert in Morocco. The Noor complex is set to help the country achieve independence from imported fossil fuels in the next 5 years.
18-25th October 2015 saw a 3000km race across the outback in Australia where cars created by 46 teams across the world competed, powered solely from the sun.
SolaSave have a number of installations where shading would have potentially rendered the site unsuitable for solar PV using regular crystalline panels. A good example of this is shown in the this case study, where CIS thin-film panels have been installed in severe shaded conditions and are performing considerably better than predicted.
At SolaSave we survey a range of properties for customers who are interested in solar installation. Some of the properties we see are more shaded from the sun. In many of these cases we have successfully installed innovative “CIS thin-film” solar panels. This panel technology significantly overcomes the decreased annual energy yields of conventional silicon solar panels for shaded properties and provides supplies of solar power that our customers are delighted with.
Techniques for purifying lithium and for optimising its effectiveness in batteries means that lithium is a valuable commodity that could revolutionise the way that we harness renewable energy in the future. This may bypass our need for fossil fuels.
The British government has been warned that it is not on track to meet its target of 15% of the UK's energy to come from renewables by 2020. This comes as the government is set to cut its subsidies for renewable energy and could result in legal action.
The government are planning to cut the feed-in tariff currently provide to subsidise the solar panel industry in the UK. The cut of 87% - which may be introduced as early as January 2016 - will discourage homeowners from using solar panels and is predicted to result in up to 27000 job losses in the solar panel industry.
The Climate Council have suggested that due to the development of cheaper batteries with higher storage capacity, 50% of homes in Australia could be powered by solar panels by 2020. Many battery companies are focused on marketing their products in Australia with one leader Tesla aiming to have their batteries in Australia homes by the end of 2015.
Currently in the UK owners of homes with solar panels can save money on their electricity and can sell surplus power back to the national grid, using a solar feed-in tariff. Customers can then buy back electricity when needed. Legislation may be changing in 2016 as the government are proposing an 87% decrease in solar power feed-in tariffs.
