It’s about time the British summer gave us some sun and the last two months have seen temperatures we could have only dreamed of in the last few years. And it’s not just our tans which have been boosted by the warm weather over the past two months, but the level of solar power generation has substantially increased too.
In fact, both the Government and major industry figures have claimed that the UK’s burst of sunshine has seen record levels of solar power.
And more and more homeowners have been making the most out of solar’s potential, with 100,000 installations in the last 12 months alone, bringing the UK’s total to 450,000. Together, these solar panel systems generate 2.7GW of energy (2% of Britain’s demand in a 24-hour period).
The Solar Trade Association reports that solar panels have overtaken wind power for the very first time in terms of electricity generation. This is enabling homeowners to significantly reduce their energy bills, whilst earning a healthy Government-backed income for the power their system produces.
With solar panels you can:
- Reduce your electricity bills by over £100 a year by generating your own power and avoiding the expensive National Grid rates. And as prices increase in the future you’ll benefit from an even greater saving
- Earn a Government-backed income in the form on the feed-in tariff. This pays out over £500 each year for the electricity you generate, guaranteeing an excellent return on investment.
Solar Trade Association’s solar panels specialist, Ray Noble, said: “The UK generated around 16,000MWh on Tuesday compared to 9,900MWh of wind. The total consumption of electricity on this relatively calm day was 766,987MWh.”
And Communications Director, Leonie Greene, added: “These few sunny weeks have shown that the solar resource in Britain is phenomenal.
“We now have a very large number of domestic installations and around one-third of the solar electricity generated now comes from utility-sized solar fields. But there are still very few medium-sized commercial or industrial installations. If the Government backed these they would see enormous payback.”
It’s not just the UK which is witnessing a record amount of solar power generation either, and Germany is still reaping the rewards as the country with the largest solar capacity in the world. There are 1.3 million installations, capable of generating nearly 40% of the country’s electrical needs.
Renewable energy advisor Alan Simpson comments on Germany’s solar success, saying: “Germany is now light years ahead of the UK and benefitting. Within a decade, many German towns and cities could be substantially ‘off-grid’ and will be taking the grid system out of the hands of the private energy companies.