Our Blogs

In the old days of solar PV, after your system was fitted, the only way to know how much power you produced was from the generation meter ticking up each day, or reading the screen on the inverter.

As inverters got better and integrated with WiFi, they allowed you to track daily, monthly and yearly production figures using your phone or computer. Although, one thing that you could never be sure of is the total amount of PV energy consumed on site.

But times have changed, and there are now much better ways of monitoring solar export and self consumption.

Solar PV panels work by converting sunlight into DC electricity which then undergoes a DC-AC conversion via an inverter (or multiple micro-inverters) to be used in your household. As the energy generation is dependent on the irradiance or amount of sunlight, it is no surprise that shading is the biggest enemy when it comes to solar PV.

Technologies over the years have dramatically improved to mitigate against the effects of shading, but like with any technology the most appropriate system specification needs to be deployed for a given scenario to yield the greatest benefits.

In the following solar panel shading analysis, we’ll investigate the causes, impacts and solutions for solar PV systems.

We’re in the midst of an energy revolution. Coal is due to be kicked off the grid by 2024, ending its 142 year reign. Solar and wind capacity has increased by 579% since 2010. The Big Six has been broken.

This rapid transformation of the UK’s electricity grid opens up many possibilities, and challenges. Chief among them is the precarious balance of supply and demand. Intermittent renewable generation, combined with electrified heating and transport, makes this a pressing task.

But can solar, alongside battery storage, be part of the solution? Find out how they can form part of ‘virtual power plants’ - the 21st century answer to the fossil giants of old.

Climate change is fast becoming an unavoidable part of our daily lives. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached a level not seen for over 3 million years. Ever more regular wildfires, heavy flooding and heatwaves foreshadow the devastation a destabilised climate could cause.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has laid out a pathway for emissions reductions which should limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C, the level estimated to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. This includes almost halving emissions by 2030, and reaching net zero by 2050. The ‘net’ means that the most difficult emission to eliminate, like farming or aviation, could be offset with carbon removal (via natural means or emerging technologies).

So how close are we to reaching the UK net zero targets?

We went to speak to Mark Sanders, one of our most enthusiastic customers, about his experience with solar PV and Tesla Powerwall.

Watch our chat in the video below:

We’re excited to introduce you to Meshwork, an online network for people working in the sustainable construction industry, or otherwise interested in how we can design more environmentally conscious buildings for the future.

In a recent NUS survey, 90% of students said they were concerned about climate change (about 10 percentage points higher than the population as a whole). Students, and young people in general, are naturally more anxious about the climate crisis - the impacts of a destabilising environment will only become more acute over their lifetimes.

Demand for warehouse space in the UK is booming this year, as more of us turn to online shopping while the virus keeps us away from the high streets. The proportion of retail done online (which was already on the rise) has skyrocketed:

We’re very excited to share our recent solar installation at West Reservoir Centre, an outdoor swimming facility in Hackney. It is the first installation in a new solar power scheme launched by Hackney Light and Power, as part of its mission to make the borough net zero carbon by 2040.