And surprises noone. However let’s ignore everyone calling for it and open new oil exploration licences instead.
So much potential for solar deployment rapidly and in ways that would leave fields usable, plenty of farms in Germany are active underneath the farms.
Also we should really be covering all car parks in solar canopies. It’s already land that’s in the open doing nothing, may as well capture the energy rather than having it heat up cars.
If we building them where there is all year round sun then great otherwise I think wind or tidal hydro is our best bet.
>The UK has 14GW of installed solar capacity, up from around 1.5GW a decade ago.
>Its rapid growth has been driven by plummeting costs – down 85% over the same period.
>New solar farms are generating electricity for less than £50 for 1 megawatt hour (MWh), enough to supply 2,000 homes for one hour.
>The agreed price for electricity from the Hinkley reactor was £92 per MWh, rising with inflation.
>And the cost of gas in recent weeks has been around £225 per MWh.
So build it, and put the money saved into insulating homes and investing in battery storage. This will pay even more dividends in the long run, cos the cost of solar is going to keep falling, eg
–
>But emerging technology could allow solar panels to harness the same amount of the sun’s energy in a smaller area.
>Oxford PV will shortly start production of panels containing a mineral called perovskite.
>The first generation is 20% more efficient than current silicone-based panels.
>But the spin-off from Oxford University is confident they can raise that to 100%.
Yeah no shit.
Just fully fund and build a new manufacturing plant in the UK, pay a current manufacturer to run it I guess and pay them just to run it, then as the panels roll off the line take them straight to large fields set aside and hook them up. Sell the energy at cost.
Don’t wait around for companies to decide to do it themselves
It really is an absolute no-brainer. Locally produced renewable energy is perhaps the single best thing we could do to improve the state of our economy. Reducing our dependency on foreign imports (not just Russia, but certain regressive states in the Middle East too) is good for diplomacy.
I just don’t get why there isn’t an enormous push for wind and solar (and hydro, tidal, etc.). It’s relatively cheap, yet we’re still looking at opening up new oil fields and building massively expensive nuclear power stations with Chinese and French ownership.
Although there is probably a big slice of NIMBY in the farmers, they are not wrong that we should retain access to as much productive land as possible. And while it’s also true that there are lots of industrial sites available I imagine the issue is increased deployment costs as it’s not so simple. Brownfield sites are most likely the best option and I would wager a small amount that a lot of them are landbanked by supermarkets and speculators who aren’t interested in deploying solar. Given the importance of this whole issue I suggest we implement some legislation where we can force them to use it for solar, pay them a fee, allow them to still own the land and they can get it back in 20 years or so. There are precedents for ‘use it or lose it’ legislation: in Northern Ireland you can’t keep buildings empty for more than a certain period without either paying council tax on them or having to put the roof in so that it’s absolutely unusable.
Really we should also be forcing all new housing or buildings to have solar on the roof. But no something so obvious isn’t mandated.
The benefit of farms is the upkeep will be done to ensure panels are replaced and maintained as time goes on, whereas individuals might not bother.
Why is Sky news promoting clean energy? I am confusion.
The fossil fuel companies love wind and solar as they know it isn’t sufficient and still guarantees them business, they literally say as much, it isn’t a conspiracy. It’s nuclear that gets attacked because it would actually work and put them out of business.
10 comments
And surprises noone. However let’s ignore everyone calling for it and open new oil exploration licences instead.
So much potential for solar deployment rapidly and in ways that would leave fields usable, plenty of farms in Germany are active underneath the farms.
Also we should really be covering all car parks in solar canopies. It’s already land that’s in the open doing nothing, may as well capture the energy rather than having it heat up cars.
If we building them where there is all year round sun then great otherwise I think wind or tidal hydro is our best bet.
>The UK has 14GW of installed solar capacity, up from around 1.5GW a decade ago.
>Its rapid growth has been driven by plummeting costs – down 85% over the same period.
>New solar farms are generating electricity for less than £50 for 1 megawatt hour (MWh), enough to supply 2,000 homes for one hour.
>The agreed price for electricity from the Hinkley reactor was £92 per MWh, rising with inflation.
>And the cost of gas in recent weeks has been around £225 per MWh.
So build it, and put the money saved into insulating homes and investing in battery storage. This will pay even more dividends in the long run, cos the cost of solar is going to keep falling, eg
–
>But emerging technology could allow solar panels to harness the same amount of the sun’s energy in a smaller area.
>Oxford PV will shortly start production of panels containing a mineral called perovskite.
>The first generation is 20% more efficient than current silicone-based panels.
>But the spin-off from Oxford University is confident they can raise that to 100%.
Yeah no shit.
Just fully fund and build a new manufacturing plant in the UK, pay a current manufacturer to run it I guess and pay them just to run it, then as the panels roll off the line take them straight to large fields set aside and hook them up. Sell the energy at cost.
Don’t wait around for companies to decide to do it themselves
It really is an absolute no-brainer. Locally produced renewable energy is perhaps the single best thing we could do to improve the state of our economy. Reducing our dependency on foreign imports (not just Russia, but certain regressive states in the Middle East too) is good for diplomacy.
I just don’t get why there isn’t an enormous push for wind and solar (and hydro, tidal, etc.). It’s relatively cheap, yet we’re still looking at opening up new oil fields and building massively expensive nuclear power stations with Chinese and French ownership.
Although there is probably a big slice of NIMBY in the farmers, they are not wrong that we should retain access to as much productive land as possible. And while it’s also true that there are lots of industrial sites available I imagine the issue is increased deployment costs as it’s not so simple. Brownfield sites are most likely the best option and I would wager a small amount that a lot of them are landbanked by supermarkets and speculators who aren’t interested in deploying solar. Given the importance of this whole issue I suggest we implement some legislation where we can force them to use it for solar, pay them a fee, allow them to still own the land and they can get it back in 20 years or so. There are precedents for ‘use it or lose it’ legislation: in Northern Ireland you can’t keep buildings empty for more than a certain period without either paying council tax on them or having to put the roof in so that it’s absolutely unusable.
“could cut bills”
Yeah, this is why it’s not going to happen.
NIMBYS will try their hardest to stop it. There’s one in Hampshire people were protesting about today. Would power a double digit % of the houses in the nearby town too. https://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/news/20072151.campaigners-bramley-solar-farm-size-100-football-pitches-gain-support-mp/
Really we should also be forcing all new housing or buildings to have solar on the roof. But no something so obvious isn’t mandated.
The benefit of farms is the upkeep will be done to ensure panels are replaced and maintained as time goes on, whereas individuals might not bother.
Why is Sky news promoting clean energy? I am confusion.
The fossil fuel companies love wind and solar as they know it isn’t sufficient and still guarantees them business, they literally say as much, it isn’t a conspiracy. It’s nuclear that gets attacked because it would actually work and put them out of business.