We often get enquiries from people who already have solar panels installed on their roof, but are keen to increase the amount of renewable energy they can produce. This might be because they had a battery fitted, or maybe their consumption has gone up with a new heat pump or electric car.
So what steps are there to overcome if you want to add more solar panels to your existing system to try and reduce your electricity bills even further?
Rewinding to the start of summer, we released a blog digging deep into the analysis of solar panel shading and the effective ways it can be mitigated. On the back of the technical flavour of this blog, I was contacted by Solar & Storage Live and invited to speak on a panel at the event.
The show brought together manufacturers, suppliers, installers, and councils as well as many other personnel from the industry, with over 4,000 attendees across the three day event. This provided a great opportunity to meet other members of the solar, storage, and electric vehicle industry as well as providing valuable insight into established and emerging technologies in the market.
Our clients are often keen to see what happens during the installation process ahead of time. As the proud recipient of Tesla’s Performance Excellence award, we’re delighted to pull back the curtain and give you a behind-the-scenes look at a recent Tesla Powerwall installation.
For the past few years, electric car owners have benefited from government support to buy their new chargepoints. But all this is set to change early next year.
The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) grant, or the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS) as it’s officially known, is closing to most homeowners.
It’s done its job, as the UK now has at least 300,000 private residential chargers (as well as over 26,000 public charging stations). Additionally, the government plans to make EV chargepoints compulsory in new build properties with parking spaces.
As the 2030 deadline for buying new combustion engine vehicles looms, electric car sales are beginning to ramp up. But the greatest changes are happening in commercial fleets - in 2020, businesses bought twice as many EVs as private individuals.
This may in part be due to the many incentives for companies to go electric, such as tax breaks for company cars. There is also the long-running grant scheme for installing chargepoints, which is due for a shakeup early next year...
This week sees the opening of COP26, the Covid-delayed climate conference where world leaders are supposed to agree plans to meet the Paris Agreement and limit global heating to between 1.5-2°C. Governments have been scrambling to come up with commitments and pledges in the run up to the Glasgow gathering, with ‘net zero’ the phrase du jour.
One such announcement is that the UK will run on carbon-free electricity by 2035. So we decided to dig a little deeper into the carbon intensity of electricity to see how it’s changing, and what the future of renewable energy holds.
We’ve written before about the possibilities of domestic ground mounted solar panels, and now there is an exciting development that could make these types of installation even more affordable. By essentially using the same mounting systems we use for flat roof PV, we can install Van der Valk ground mounted solar panels to cut time and costs for our clients.
Let’s take a look at how it works.
Times are tough on businesses right now, with a triple whammy of economic uncertainty due to Brexit, Covid and soaring energy prices. But amid the chaos are some silver linings that could mean now is the perfect time to invest in solar for your company and cut down on energy costs. Low interest rates and the government’s super-deduction can save you a lot of money on solar PV purchases, which normally pay back in 6-10 years and can also help your company reach net zero targets.
We’ll run you through the benefits of buying solar panels in the present climate, as well as highlighting the potential issues you should be aware of from the beginning, such as solar panel business rates and planning permission.
The return of holidays and foreign travel is on the horizon.
Once the pandemic is over, many people are looking to take more sustainable trips. And hoteliers are rising to the challenge. Between 2015 and 2018, the average carbon emissions per square metre of hotels decreased 10% globally, with a 23.4% reduction in the UK.
We believe one of the most effective ways to cut carbon (and costs) is by investing in solar panels for hotels. They can help to win over more environmentally-conscious visitors and reduce monthly energy bills. In fact, Whitbread, the UK’s largest hospitality company, has rolled out solar PV across 20% of its Premier Inn hotels so far (much of it installed by Spirit!).
