Press Releases
Solar power can deliver 100,000 new UK jobs by 2020
According to research from the UK Photovoltaic Manufacturers Association solar power could deliver 100,000 much needed jobs in the UK construction industry, helping kick start the UK’s economic recovery. The report, ’2020 A Vision for UK PV’, has been released as over 150 representatives of UK Government, Parliament, business and NGOs meet at the House of Commons today to discuss the potential for solar power to help economic recovery in the UK. Spurring this demand will be a Feed-in Tariff for solar power from April 2010 where solar producers may be paid three to four times than at present for their clean energy. Details of the much needed Feed-in tariff (FIT), as in place in over 18 European countries, are due to be announced by the Government this week.
Solar cyclists start round the world adventure
London, Friday 15th May 2009: The UK solar industry, ‘We Support Solar’, the UK campaign for solar energy; SolarAid and G24 Innovations, is backing three environmental campaigners on a round-the-world bicycle expedition which aims to highlight the potential of solar power in the fight against climate change. Along with leg power, Susie Wheeldon, Jamie Vining and Iain Henderson are equipped with thin-film photovoltaic (PV) panels - custom built into their panniers by G24 Innovations - to power the very latest in Nokia navigation, communications and sports technology; allowing their supporters to follow them second by second around the globe. The intrepid team will set off from London’s City Hall on Friday 15th May, also known as European Solar Day. The gruelling nine month, 12,000 mile journey will take them through 14 countries, searing hot deserts and snow-capped mountains to raise money for SolarAid; the UK charity established by one of the world’s leading thinkers on environm...
Solar electricity as cheap as conventional electricity in UK by 2013.
A common assumption, in Government and the traditional energy industry, is that solar electricity will not be as cheap as conventional electricity from coal, gas and nuclear power for more than two decades (1). For this apparent reason, solar photovoltaics (PV) have tended to play a very minor role in UK energy policy scenarios to date. Yet globally, the solar photovoltaics market is the fastest-growing of all energy markets. In the first three quarters of 2008 more than half of all venture capital investments in cleantech went into PV (2). Many in Silicon Valley say the digital revolution is in the process of being replaced by the solar revolution (3). The spectacularly fast growth of the German solar market in recent years shows that this revolution applies just as much to cloudy countries as sunny regions (4). And even in the UK solar PV has been by far the most popular renewable energy technology in the governments Low Carbon Buildings Programme. Now, new data contradicts the o...