Considering the lukewarm results coming out of COP 23 in Bonn, it may seem foolhardy to believe in a world where we all enjoy driverless electric cars and every school and health centre across Africa is powered by clean, affordable energy. The targets set on carbon emissions are looking fragile, while the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement has dominated the headlines over the past six months. But beyond the gloom, there is one palpable reason to be optimistic. We have reached a technological tipping point where solar power now has the capacity to turn the lights on round-the-clock for the last billion people on earth without reliable power. This revolution is partly driven by the trickle-down effect of innovation happening in Silicon Valley and the car industry. As big brands have striven to develop longer-lasting and cleaner batteries to power our phones, tablets and electric cars, they have forced a huge leap forward in lithium battery technology. These advances are now being utilised outside those industries.
FT 29th Nov 2017 read more »
On-site energy storage is “the way that you make the subsidy free package work” for large scale solar according to climate change minister Claire Perry who has pointed to Anesco’s Clay Hill solar farm as proof of why the technology so longer needs financial support from tax payers. The MP for Devizes was grilled earlier this week (28 November) by the business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) select committee where she also revealed she had never had an official meeting with prime minister Theresa May to discuss the climate change brief. In a wide ranging session covering the recent COP23 summit in Bonn and the shortfall within the Clean Growth Strategy in meeting the UK’s legally binding carbon budgets, Perry was quizzed on the decision not to offer any new low carbon electricity levies until 2025 aside from the £557 million already committed to contracts for difference (CfD) auctions. “Given that I opened the country’s first subsidy-free solar farm a few months ago and we’re buying offshore wind at effectively subsidy free levels, it seems to me that committing £557 million to further subsidise renewables is a pretty decent commitment,” she said.
Solar Portal 30th Nov 2017 read more »
