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Solar Panel Installations In Australia Break Record

Whilst the number of solar panels being installed in the UK has been floundering in the last couple of years or so this has certainly not been the case in Australia. In fact, quite the opposite as a record was broken in 2017.

Last year there was 1,057 megawatts of solar power installed. This means that there were in the region of 3.5 million solar panels fitted in 2017. That is in excess of 9,500 solar photovoltaic panels being fitted every day – a huge number.

When comparing the figures with 2016 there was a rise of 41%. Again, this is a large increase.

Solar power is certainly proving to be a popular source of renewable energy in Australia and is being taken up by many homeowners and business owners who are having solar panels fitted to their roofs in large numbers as, of course, the above figures confirm. These solar panel installations will no doubt help Australia reduce its carbon emissions that is something that countries around the world are tasked with doing.

It will be interesting to see if we see an upturn in the number of solar panels being installed here in the UK. The days seem to have long gone when we could drive around a local housing estate and notice that there had been a number of new rooftop installations of solar panels. Nowadays, such installations certainly appear to be few and far between.

It would appear that something needs to be done to encourage more homes and businesses to have solar panels fitted here in the UK. Unfortunately, the downturn in solar panel installations has no doubt resulted in a considerable number of people loosing their jobs within this industry.

Here at Solar Panels UK, we will continue to keep our readers up to date with any significant developments relating to solar power and any interesting stories.

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Solar Power For Irish Theme Park

You may be interested to read that Tayto Park that is the only theme park in the Republic of Ireland is to benefit from a solar farm that has recently had conditional planning approval granted to be built. In the region of 120,000 solar panels are to be put up close to the theme park with some of the power it generates being used towards providing solar energy to the park.

Tayto Park is both a theme park and zoo and attracts many visitors in a year. The park has a number of rides that can be enjoyed by people of all ages as well as a zoo where a number of animals including some farm animals, mammals and birds can be viewed.

The planned solar farm sounds like it is going to be a considerable size and it is costing in the region of £20 million to be built.

There is no doubt that solar farms like the one above will make a considerable difference when it comes to helping countries around the world achieve their renewable energy targets in the coming years. Such farms should also help lower carbon emissions around the world.

Of course, there are often objections from local residents about the erection of ground mounted solar panels on a solar farm. However, it is often possible to build such a development without causing concern from people living in the locality if it is possible to install the solar photovoltaic panels in such a way that they are not visible to people going past the solar farm. If this can be achieved then less people are likely to raise an objection about a solar farm being built.

It is going to be interesting to see if other theme parks in the likes of the UK decide to make greater use of solar energy in the coming months and years. We will continue to keep you advised about interesting projects.

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Possible World First Announced By Australian University

You may be interested to read that the University of New South Wales (UNSW) has recently announced the signing of an agreement with Origin Energy and Maoneng Australia for the offsite supply of solar power to the university. It is hoped that the university will derive all its energy needs from solar power by 2020 and that it believes it will be the first university in the world to be carbon neutral for all its energy from such a source.

The agreement will mean that the university will be deriving all its energy from the Maoneng’s Sunraysia Solar Farm. It is forecast that it will buy as much as 124,000 megawatts of renewable energy every year.

Many Australians certainly seem to be keen to take up solar panel installations, as it is believed that the first month of 2018 saw more solar panel installations on rooftops in the country than any previous January. Of course, Australia is renowned for its sunshine and therefore there may well be a number of people who feel that it would be beneficial to maximize the sunshine by having solar panels fitted.

Here in the UK, there do not appear to be as many home owners having solar panels fitted to their roofs as there were two or three years ago. It will be interesting to see what happens in this respect for the remainder of 2018.

Here at Solar Panels UK we will continue to keep our readers up to date with any interesting solar power projects that come to our attention throughout 2018 and beyond. Over the years, we have commented on many interesting solar panel uses such as on the back of rucksacks to enable walkers to charge up their mobile phones, solar panels on public car ports that can be used to help charge up cars, solar panel road surfaces and solar panels on ambulances

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USA To Impose Tariffs on Solar Panel Imports

Donald Trump is obviously keen to protect businesses in the USA in respect of the likes of trade and jobs. In an effort to do so with regard to the solar industry it is expected that tariffs are to be introduced relating to solar modules and solar cells.

It is expected that there will be an increase in the tariff on solar modules and solar cells to 30% during year one. In year four this is expected to drop to 15%. Having said that, every year, 2.5 GW of solar cells that have been imported will be allowed into the USA without any tariff being charged.

Unfortunately, this decision will not go down well with the likes of China that has a reputation for exporting large volumes of solar panels and solar cells to other countries around the world. This includes the United States of America.

In the last couple of years or so, as previously mentioned in earlier posts, there has been conflict between the USA and China over the import of the likes of solar panels into the USA. A number of the major solar panel manufacturers in the USA have been concerned about the competition from the likes of China.

It will be interesting to observe what sort of discussions take place between the likes of the USA and China in the coming weeks/months about the intended tariffs being imposed on solar modules and solar cells being imported into the USA.

The import of solar products into the USA has no doubt resulted in tighter margins being imposed by manufacturers in the USA on such products. This could have and may lead to job losses in that country which no doubt has a knock on effect in the country as a whole. As always, we will continue to keep our many readers up to date with the above situation.

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China Builds Solar Panelled Stretch Of Roadway

As many of you will be aware, China is a major manufacturer of solar panels with many being exported to a variety of countries around the world. It is also no doubt keen to lower carbon emissions to improve the air quality in its towns and cities.

China has recently completed the laying of around 2 kilometres of solar panelled highway in the Eastern partQ of the country. It has been constructed by Qilu Transportation Development Group. This sounds like a particularly interesting project as it has involved the laying of concrete that is transparent on the top surface of this particular stretch of road network. Below that the solar panels have been fitted and below them is another layer that provides insulation against the ground that can no doubt be wet.

Apparently, the road surface is capable of allowing medium sized vans to drive over it as well as cars. The solar panels will be helping to generate electricity that can be used by the city that is close to this stretch of highway – Jinan. Another benefit is that the road surface could be heated up with the benefit that any snow and ice would melt and make it safer for motorists to use it in wintry conditions.

It will be interesting to see how successful this project is at generating renewable energy by using solar panels in this way. There will no doubt be a number of other countries that closely monitor the situation and some may decide to follow suit and build similar road systems. Of course, China is not alone in doing this sort of thing as we have previously written about a solar panel surfaced road system in France.

Are we ever likely to see say a stretch of the MI, M6 or M25 motorways with solar panels installed on the surface of a major road here in the UK? Who knows but if we do we shall keep you updated.

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The Rise Of Renewable Energy

It is well known that countries around the world are keen to increase the amount of electricity produced by renewable sources such as by solar and wind power as well as biomass. If you were to visit the website of My Grid GB you can see some interesting data in this respect for the UK. Below we highlight some of that information for your perusal but a lot more data can be viewed on the above website.

One thing that is particularly interesting is the drop in the amount of coal being used to help generate electricity. For instance, back in 2012, 43.2% of electricity was generated using coal. In 2013 this figure had fallen to 40.0%. In 2014 there was yet another reduction – this time to 32.3%. In 2015 electricity produced using coal dropped to 26%. By the end of 2016 there was a huge fall to only 9.6% and in 2017 electricity generated by coal amounted to a mere 7%.

Unfortunately, data is only available for solar power generated electricity from 2016 and in that year 3.3% of electricity was produced with the help of solar energy. Last year that figure had grown to 3.6%.

In 2012 wind made up 4% of generated electricity and the following year the figure had risen to 5.9%. In 2014 the figure was 7.1%, in 2015 it was 8.2% but in 2016 it fell to 7.6%. However, in 2017, the amount of electricity generated using wind had increased to 11.7%.

In 2012 biomass made up 0.7% of generated electricity and by the end of 2013 the figure had gone up to 1.2%. In 2014 there was a further rise to 2.5% and a further increase in 2015 to 3.9%. In 2016 the amount of electricity generated using biomass was 4.9% with a small rise in 2017 to 5%.

The level of carbon emissions appears to be going down. In 2016 the figure stood at 95mt yet in 2017 the amount had fallen to 77mt.

It will be very interesting to see the performance of renewable energy in respect of the above in 2018 here in the UK. Will we see a further rise in the amount of electricity produced using solar power?

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China Building World’s Largest Floating Solar Panel Farm

You may well be aware that China is into solar power in a big way being a large global manufacturer of solar panels many of which are exported to other countries around the world. Well, it is in the throes of building the largest solar panel farm on the planet in Anhui that is a province in Eastern China.

The project is being run by Three Gorges New Energy Corporation. The company has invested a considerable sum of money in the scheme – a total of $151 million. It will be a 150 megawatt station.

Construction work actually started back in July of this year and a few days ago the solar power plant was attached to the grid in China. It is being forecast that the floating solar panel project should be finished in May of next year.

The solar panels are being attached to floats that are sitting on top of the water which, to date, has been space that presumably has not been maximized. When you think about it, there are no doubt many opportunities around the world to set up floating solar panel farms as there are acre upon acre of reservoirs and lakes that are not being used to their maximum other than perhaps to allow the likes of sailing and fishing clubs use them.

Of course, China is a country that has an awful lot of carbon emissions being produced in its atmosphere with many people wearing masks in certain cities when outdoors. It is projects like these that should be able to help in lowering carbon emissions. This can only be good news for the industry, for China and the rest of the world.

We have previously written about similar projects in other parts of the world and will no doubt continue to do so in the future. China is to be applauded for setting up this latest floating solar panel plant. We will continue to keep you updated about similar projects both here in the UK and elsewhere in the world.

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How Are Gloucester Cathedral’s Solar Panels Performing?

Our readers may recollect that, back in September 2016, we mentioned that Gloucester Cathedral was having solar panels fitted to one of its roofs with a view to reducing its electricity bills and lowering carbon emissions. So, how are those solar photovoltaic panels performing some 12 months after being installed?

Well, they are doing very well. So far, the solar panels have produced almost 32MWh of energy that is a commendable performance and will no doubt have saved the cathedral several thousand pounds in electricity costs. Over 12,500 kg of carbon emissions have also been saved with this again being a very good performance. This later figure equates to over 41 trees being planted.

There are a number of church buildings that have had solar panels installed in the last few years so hopefully they will have had a reasonable return on their investment both by way of a reduction in their energy bills and a lowering in carbon emissions. With fewer people attending church these days this has probably had a result in reducing the amount left in collection boxes so if the installation of solar panels has lowered electricity bills this may have gone some way to compensating churches.

It will be interesting to observe if, as a result of the success Gloucester Cathedral appears to have had, more church buildings have solar panels fitted to one or more of their roofs. Obviously, as many church buildings are of historic interest, a great deal of thought will need to go into deciding if it is considered appropriate to install solar panels.

Here at Solar Panels UK, we will continue to keep our readers up to date with any other interesting solar power projects that are scheduled to take place or that have already taken place either here in the UK or elsewhere in the world. If as has happened in the past new projects come to light that we feel are suitable to report on we will aim to do just that as speedily as possible.

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Solar Panels Help Party The Night Away

A disc jockey tends to take an awful lot of equipment with him or her to a gig such as turntables, lighting and loudspeakers. These things need electricity to power them otherwise it would not be possible to provide such entertainment.

Well, a business by the name of Solar Sound System has, for quite some time, been providing entertainment systems where the electricity is generated by both the sun and people pedaling bicycles. This no doubt means that dances could take place in remote country locations such as in the middle of a forest or field without the need to bring in generators as well as in towns and cities.

The system was produced back in 1999 in Switzerland with other locations coming on line in Tel Aviv, Paris, Marseille, Berlin and the Basque country over the years. You may be interested to know that London is on the list of future venues.

Each system has solar panels as well as two bicycles with the later being manned by partygoers who pedal for a period of time before someone else takes over the strain no doubt enabling all to enjoy the evening’s entertainment.

We have reported about numerous other interesting uses of solar panels over the years such as being attached to ruck sacks enabling walkers and climbers to charge up their mobile phones and no doubt, as time goes by, there will be many more unique inventions for the use of these panels. It would certainly appear that solar power is here to stay with the main use being to help provide electricity for homes and commercial premises in numerous countries worldwide.

Anything that can be done to reduce the carbon emissions both here in the UK and in other countries around the world has got to be welcomed. We have witnessed a big rise in the amount of energy being produced by renewable means when compared with the more traditional methods in the last few years and let us hope that this is something we continue to see happen.

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Solar Paper – An Innovative Way To Charge Your Mobile Phone

A company by the name of YOLK has produced a product called “Solar Paper” that can be used to charge the likes of a mobile phone when you are on the move should your normal phone battery be low on power. It is paper-thin and comes in a variety of power outputs.

Around a $1 million was raised on Kickstarter that is a funding platform to help produce Solar Paper back in 2015.

Solar Paper is manufactured in 2.5W solar sub panels that can be connected together to provide increased charging capacity. You may be interested to read that the panels are a mere 1.5mm in thickness and are very light weighing just 60g. The panel is 17cm in length and 9cm wide making it easy to carry about.

In sunny conditions the 2.5W version is capable of charging an iPhone 6 in around 5 hours. The 5W version can charge an iPhone 6 in about 2.5 hours in the sun and about 5 hours when it is partly sunny/cloudy. The 7.5W capacity Solar Paper can charge an iPhone 6 in 2.5 hours in the sun but can charge the same phone in 5 hours even when it is cloudy. The 10W capacity version is capable of charging an iPad air 2 in 4.5 hours of sunshine and it takes around 9 hours to charge the same tablet when it is partly sunny/cloudy.

The Solar Paper can be attached to things like backpacks making it useful for people who are out on long walks or hill climbing meaning that, potentially, he or she is less likely to find that their mobile phone has run out of charge.

We are sure that you will agree it is great to see such products being invented that should help the solar power industry maintain its awareness in what is undoubtedly a competitive marketplace. We will continue to keep our readers up to date with any other interesting solar products.

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