Our planet revolves around the sun at just about the perfect distance to provide the optimum conditions that sustain life. The light from the sun contains vast amounts of energy, which, when it hits an object, causes heat to be transferred. But with some materials found on Earth, sunlight has another, equally profound effect – it turns on the lights.…
Month: September 2014
Should You Give Away You’re Feed in Tariff?
Free Solar Panels? On the surface it seems like a good idea. You want to get solar panels installed, get cheaper electricity bills and a company is offering to do it for free. The catch? They want control of your Feed in Tariff. The Feed in Tariff, for those who don’t know, is a scheme whereby you can sell the…
Are Your Solar Panels Facing the Wrong Way?
According to researchers at Loughborough University, people might have spent thousands of pounds investing in solar panels only to find that they are not facing the right way. The excepted wisdom for a while now has been that panels should face south to collect the most amount of energy. Professor Ralph Gottshalg has undertaken some studies suggesting that adding east…
Are We Reaching the Renewables Tipping Point?
With problems in the Ukraine recently and the call for further sanctions on Russia, it suddenly became clear how dependent certain European countries are on fossil fuels such as gas. While the UK only gets a small amount of its gas from Russia, Germany is dependent for around 30% of its supply. Sanctioning Russia by not using their power source…
Should we Follow Denmark’s Example with District Heating?
Why Denmark Leads the way in District Heating? Beneath the streets of Denmark is an enormous network of pipes just like in any other developed country in Europe. The difference? These pipes provide heating direct to houses. Whereas most of us in the UK have our own individual boiler, in Denmark they are using district heating. In this country it…
The Winds of Change?
The Future of Wind Turbines They seem to polarize opinion in a way that no other renewable technology does. They are a blot on the landscape or the future of energy production in the UK. Whatever you think of them, wind turbines are here to stay and they have become a part of our landscape in a way we would not…
