Solar PV developments

Solar power is used as an alternate energy source to power homes and buildings, it is the talent to convert sunlight into electricity. Solar power has lots of benefits including being pollution free and less costly than using fossil fuels.

In 2006, the UK was only representing 0.3% of the European total of 3.4GWp and had only installed 12.5 MWp of photovoltaic capacity.

In June 2008 a new programme to encourage homeowners to create their own electricity was announced, which includes a feed-in tariff. This was due to an EU arrangement to create 15% of electricity from renewables by 2020.

Work was completed in Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, on the largest solar park in the UK on 13 July 2011. The 5 MW free-field system was built just in seven weeks after being granted planning permission. The system will create an estimated 4,860 MW • h of electricity (an average power of 560 kW) into the national grid each year. Further solar facilities in the United Kingdom include the 5MW Langage Solar Park, the 5 MW Westmill Solar Farm, the 4.51 MW Marsten Solar Farm and Toyotas 4.6 MW plant in Burnaston, Derbyshire.

Alternate energy is being used and promoted at some of the most powerful companies in the world. The Global technology company, Intel gets over 50% of its energy from renewable technology. 100% green energy is used at Dell headquarters and some of its smaller facilities. Johnson & Johnson think that Green power benefits the environment and also provides the company with a dependable and stable supply of energy so they utilise wind power and Solar PV where they can. HSBC, Dannon, Kohl's and Deutsche Bank also use renewable energy. The UKs biggest single ownership on-roof Solar PV solution has just been installed at Body Shop International head office in Littlehampton, West Sussex.

The Green Energy for Schools programme will be providing 100 schools across the UK with solar panels. The first school in Wales was the Tavernspite School, near Whitland, which received panels worth £20,000, sufficient to bring about 3,000 kW • h of electricity each year.

A primary school head teacher in Walton-on-Thames initiated an ambitious programme of sustainable energy work which included the installation of high performance Alwitra Evalon® Solar roof panels from ICB on a new teaching block, following a trip to the Antarctic to understand the effects of climate change, a

On track to receive a BREEAM outstanding rating, the Ashley Primary School is providing a lesson in sustainability with Evalon® Solar roof panels providing electricity, energy efficient lighting, a biomass boiler providing heat, and eight solar thermal panels warming the water for a small swimming pool and the hot water system.

As more and more architects and building professionals obtain experience in the integration of Solar PV systems into the built environment, this relatively new technology will begin to fuse, almost imperceptibly, into the nation's urban and rural landscapes.