The EU pledges to get 20% of its energy from low carbon technologies by 2020. Solar power is able to be harnessed from most parts of the continent, but is expensive to install and inefficient in some areas. The UK is currently rethinking some of its policies regarding feed-in-tariffs for larger solar farms and installations, which could undermine the growth of the industry. So despite its apparent appeal as a low-carbon energy source, it’s questionable as to whether it’s major viable alternative to fossil fuels or nuclear power.
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Images taken by Anka Lindemann, all rights reserved
Transcript
Anka Lindemann: Over the last fortnight we’ve finally seen summer arrive here in Britain. The daffodils have flowered nicely and the ice cream vans are chiming their bells once again.
But when the sun is out, who’s thinking about harnessing its energy? Solar power is one of the cleanest ways to produce electricity and we’ve been using photo-voltaic solar cells for over a generation.
Michael Jones: The world has greatly improved its use of renewable energy in general over the past decade. The 20:20 pledge made by the EU states that 20 per cent of the EU’s power should be produced from renewable sources by 2020. Currently the UK gets around 7 per cent of its electricity from solar, wind or tidal turbines.
The amount produced by renewable as a whole is 28 Terrawatt hours a year, which should be enough to power five million homes throughout the UK.
But how much of that is from solar power? And how do these numbers stack up against the rest of Europe?
AL: The UK only plans to produce 15 per cent of its energy demand from renewable sources by 2020. This is one of the lowest pledges throughout the EU. Nations such as Latvia are looking to get up to 40 per cent of their energy from renewable sources.
MJ: But not much of renewable electricity produced in the UK is from solar panels. So 7 per cent of energy in the UK comes from renewable sources, and 1.2 per cent of that is from solar power. This works out as around 0.07 per cent of all energy in the UK which is harnessed from the sun.
To put that in context, 37 per cent of renewable energy comes from wind, representing approximately 2.7 per cent of all energy generated in the UK.
Offshore windfarms are increasingly important, but these installations are incredibly costly and difficult to repair because of their location.
AL: Solar power is less expensive, but also less effective in the UK, famed for its temperamental weather. When we were initially to meet Jason Clarke, Environment and Energy Manager at City University, London, heavy rain prevented us from venturing onto the roof to see the institution’s solar panels.
But then the sun came out to play and we went up to see how electricity is gained…
Jason Clarke: We’ve had the solar panels since June 2009, so a couple of years. The university is actually a really large energy user in terms of Islington. We are the third largest energy user. And the solar panels account for around 1 per cent of our energy footprint.
MJ: Just looking over at some of these arrays, some of them are actually in shade at the moment, and some are exposed and so receiving lots of energy. Is that a design flaw or is that a plan?
JC: Well it’s certainly not a plan! The direction that they’re facing in works well if you notice that…if you can imagine the sun comes around this way, so they pick up a great deal of light and they’re pointing in the right direction. That’s one of the main things you have to get, to ensure that it’s pointing in the right direction, which this is.
But obviously in a city centre location you can’t really account for the proximity of other buildings and most of the time there’ll be a certain amount of shading effect that you’ll get.
But in terms of return from them these work pretty well.
MJ: Thanks to Jason Clarke and to the wonderful British weather!
AL: Future production of electricity from solar panels may now be reaching a crossroad. The Government’s latest plan is to reduce the feed-in-tariff of electricity produced by solar panels by up to 70 per cent. This applies to companies or individuals whose installations are capable of producing 50 kilo watts or more.
But what does this actually mean?
MJ: At first glance it seems pretty counter-intuitive to the green schemes that the government wants to introduce.
At the moment, someone who owns an average 2.5 kilo watt solar panel is able to receive money from energy suppliers for a feed-in-tariff of up to £700 per year. Additionally they can earn around £25-£30 from excess energy that is sold back to the national grid.
AL: That’s quite a lot of money – surely everyone should put a solar panel on their roof, right?
MJ: If they can afford the installation costs of around £12,000 then it’s a more feasible option. But one 2.5 kilo watt panel will only produce about half of the energy needs of an average household even when output is at its highest.
However, installations that produce more than 50 kilo watts will receive less than the maximum £700 from the feed-in-tariff. And anyone producing more than 250 kilo watts could only receive 30 per cent of their current income.
This may reduce the amount of large-scale solar farms.
AL: So far the re-evaluation of feed-in-tariffs for low carbon electricity production is at the public consultation stage and applies only to large-scale farms. Private panels on homes remain an option for energy production, although as you say the installation can be expensive.
In the UK we need slightly larger solar arrays compared to countries in the Mediterranean, based on light intensity, to produce the same amount of electricity. Currently they take up a lot of space, for relatively lower output. Even so, solar panels are now built in to some construction projects, such as The HSBC building in the Docklands.
With new technologies it is also possible to harness electricity from in-built solar cells in roof tiles and windows. So rather than paying for the panels and hooking them up to the building’s electricity supply, they are built in to the initial construction.
MJ: So the house of the future, as was supposed from the 1950s, perhaps isn’t too far away. Maybe more housing developments should be forced to incorporate some of these materials in order to reduce our energy demand from fossil fuels. For Elements Science Michael Jones
AL: And Anka Lindemann.
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