Simply days after a large election win, UK’s new Labour authorities has hit the bottom operating and is already making progress on growing solar energy deployment.
The UK simply held an election on July 4th, wherein the nation declared its independence from the Tories (heh) and handed Labour a historic landslide win.
The brand new Labour authorities has made inexperienced power coverage a precedence, eager to quickly enhance photo voltaic and wind energy.
In service of that objective, Power Secretary Ed Miliband accepted three photo voltaic farms this weekend, on the finish of his first full week on the job. The farms are in Suffolk/Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, and Rutland – all in east England. The primary two farms will generate 500MW of energy, the latter will generate 350MW.
The farms had been blocked by the earlier Tory administration, which Miliband labored rapidly to treatment.
Mixed, these three tasks account for 1.35GW, or about 2/3 as a lot as the entire photo voltaic capability put in within the UK final yr. This quantity of energy is sufficient to provide round 400,000 houses with electrical energy.
Miliband additionally mentioned he needs to begin a “rooftop revolution” by rewriting planning guidelines to allow extra rooftop photo voltaic, each for current houses and for consumers searching for to buy newly constructed houses with panels already put in. (We reported on an identical transfer in Michigan final week which made it simpler for owners in an HOA to put in rooftop photo voltaic.)
I need to unleash a UK photo voltaic rooftop revolution. We’ll encourage builders and owners in no matter method we are able to to ship this win-win know-how to tens of millions of addresses within the UK so folks can present their very own electrical energy, lower their payments and on the similar time assist combat local weather change
Ed Miliband, UK Power Secretary
These rules haven’t but been rewritten, however we’ll see extra on them sooner or later.
Along with this weekend’s photo voltaic bulletins, final week, Miliband lifted restrictions that had been placed on onshore wind that had amounted to a “de facto” ban on its set up. The earlier coverage blocked any venture that obtained any public pushback by any means, whatever the scale of that pushback – permitting NIMBYs to cease any enchancment in Britain’s power future.
The brand new tasks and insurance policies are working in the direction of Labour’s objective to double onshore wind, triple solar energy, and quadruple offshore wind by 2030. Labour additionally plans to introduce a brand new state-owned energy firm, GB Power, to speed up the decarbonization of power provide, which we must always hear extra about within the coming week.
Renewable power is seen as necessary for Britain not solely on account of its lack of air pollution, however as a result of it should assist to offer power safety. A lot of Europe’s methane comes from Russia, which means that operating electrical energy era off of fossil gasoline helps to fund the invasion of Ukraine. This isn’t solely unpopular throughout the continent and within the UK particularly, nevertheless it additionally contributes to volatility of electrical energy costs for Britons. Putting in extra home sources of electrical energy within the type of wind and photo voltaic may also help to scale back that volatility and dependence on international power sources.
Should you’re contemplating going photo voltaic within the US, it’s at all times a good suggestion to get quotes from just a few installers. To be sure you discover a trusted, dependable photo voltaic installer close to you that gives aggressive pricing, try EnergySage, a free service that makes it simple so that you can go photo voltaic. It has tons of of pre-vetted photo voltaic installers competing for what you are promoting, making certain you get high-quality options and save 20-30% in comparison with going it alone. Plus, it’s free to make use of, and also you gained’t get gross sales calls till you choose an installer and share your telephone quantity with them.
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