November 2011
1 post
Important announcement about Feed in Tariffs
Yesterday the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) released its Comprehensive Feed-in Tariff (FIT) Review. If you have had a proposal from Sun Switch to install solar PV we would urge you to take advantage of the higher rates by installing before 12 December.
DECC proposes to cut the feed-in tariff from 43.3p to 21p per kWh, for systems below 4 kWp. DECC has decided to apply the lower...
August 2011
1 post
Sun Switch Information Evening
Join us at the Sun Switch Information Evening
On Thursday 22 September, Sun Switch are holding a free seminar where prospective customers can come along to find out more about solar PV, the benefits of feed in tariffs and the technology used (including the panels and inverters we offer at Sun Switch). You’ll also have the chance to speak to previous Sun Switch customers about their...
May 2011
1 post
4 tags
March 2011
2 posts
Come and see us at the Green Buckingham Fair
Sun Switch will be exhibiting at the Green Buckingham Fair on Saturday 26 March 2011.
The organisers, the Green Buckingham Group, say that “the fair will be hosting a wide-ranging selection of environmental products and services, presented by organisations and companies involved with sustainability, energy efficiency, energy saving and environmentally friendly products”. More...
Feed in tariffs rise by 4.8% from April
Good news that Ofgem has announced the new feed in tariff rates to come in on April 2011.
Both generation and export tariff rates are index linked which means that they will increase with inflation. The tariff rates are adjusted annually by the percentage increase in the retail price index over the 12 month period ending on 31 December of the previous year. The adjusted rates will apply from 1...
February 2011
2 posts
3 tags
Huhne takes action on solar farm threat →
Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, has moved to ensure that homeowners benefitting from the Feed-in Tariff scheme aren’t impacted by large-scale solar farms.
DECC, the Government department responsible for FITs, have announced a comprehensive review into the scheme. Huhne said:
“The renewables industry is a vital piece in the green growth jigsaw and this review will provide long term certainty...
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8 Questions You Must Ask Any Solar PV Supplier
There are lots of reasons for choosing to install solar PV panels on your roof, but how do you go about choosing a solar PV supplier? Here are some questions that we think you should aim to get answers for. Some will be apparent from looking at websites, others you will have to ask in person or over the telephone. It’s important that you are satisfied with the answers; while a solar PV...
January 2011
1 post
December 2010
1 post
2 tags
How people are benefitting from solar PV systems... →
We recently added a new page to the Sun Switch website, where you can see case studies and read testimonials from people that have had Sun Switch systems installed on their roofs.
Installing a solar PV system is a significant investment. While we hope the financial benefits are clear, on this page we hope to demonstrate some of the specific reasons our customers have for installing Sun Switch PV...
November 2010
1 post
3 tags
October 2010
2 posts
‘Free’ solar panels not such a great deal →
An article from Which? that explains who really benefits from ‘free’ solar panels:
The consumer champion found that even in the sunniest far South West of the country, ‘rent-a-roofers’ would only save a maximum of £412 a year off their electricity bill. The company supplying the solar panels, on the other hand, would get £1,313 from the government’s feed-in-tariff (FIT), an incentive...
Obama to add solar panels to White House →
US President Barack Obama is to install solar panels on the White House roof, a move lauded by climate activists as symbolic of the nation’s energy future.
September 2010
1 post
4 tags
WatchInstall solar panels and get paid for saving energy : Directgov - Newsroom
Some new figures from the Government’s Directgov website on the numbers of PV installations:
People across the UK are rapidly installing solar panels and making money for saving energy.
The government introduced ‘Feed-in Tariffs’ or FITS at the beginning of April. Since then, the uptake of...
August 2010
2 posts
2 tags
July 2010
6 posts
2 tags
Egypt plans 100MW solar power plant →
The Egyptian Electricity Ministry has unveiled plans to build a new $700m 100MW solar power plant between 2012 and 2017 that should further establish the country as one of the leading developers of utility-scale solar plants.
“I want to see more homes, communities and businesses generating their own...”
– Climate Change Minister Greg Barker, 12 July 2010. He was launching the first stage of the Government’s plans to help communities become more self-sufficient in the way they use heat and power.
Click here to read the full DECC press release
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“British Gas estimates that if all religious buildings installed solar panels,...”
– Places of worship could make £29m a year from solar panels, British Gas claims - Telegraph
Feed-in tariffs could save faith groups a further £5m as they wouldn’t have to buy their own electricity. Great news for religious buildings, as they tend to have large south-facing roofs which are...
1 tag
Solar Impulse completes 24-hour flight →
An experimental solar-powered plane landed safely today after completing its first 24-hour test flight, proving that the aircraft can collect enough energy from the sun during the day to stay aloft all night.
An interesting article in the Guardian recently. If an aircraft can collect this amount of energy, imagine what a Sun Switch system on your roof could generate over its 25 year life-span.
June 2010
5 posts
1 tag
2 tags
“A fast growing segment of the United States green construction market is...”
– Sustainability blog - Sustainability from rhetoric to reality - Zerochampion
A guest post from Houston Neal on Phil Clark’s Zerochampion blog looks at 5 suggested retrofits, including solar PV systems.
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May 2010
7 posts
3 tags
Guest blog: Why I bought a solar PV system
I’m Phillip Rushforth, one of the team of Solar PV System Designers at Sun Switch and live west of Buckingham.
I started to look at alternative energy sources last summer as our house was not originally on the gas main and we therefore do not have gas central heating. I have also been concerned about the rapidly rising cost of energy, and the fact that more of our energy is having to be...
Coalition agreement confirms committment to PV →
The Tory - Lib Dem coalition agreement has now been published. Whilst just a seven page document, their committment to renewable energy and feed in tariffs is confirmed in section 11 on the environment. If you follow the link you can read the document in a snazzy document viewer without having to actually download the PDF. THe relevant section is reproduced below:
The parties agree to...
New Minister speaks
Good to hear Chris Huhne, the new Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, speak so passionately about clean energy and energy efficiency this morning on Radio 4’s Today programme. I only caught a part of the interview on my way into work, but he was advocating more investment in all renewable energy sources. Whilst obviously nuclear power is a major point of disagreement between...
Welcome to the Sun Switch blog and news feed
Hi
Welcome to Sun Switch, our new website and our new blog. We intend to keep this blog up to date with the rapidly evolving development of Sun Switch, plus interesting bits and bobs from the world of PV, particularly in the Uk.
Please give us your thoughts on anything that we post. We’d love to hear your views.
Austin Baggett
Sun Switch - Solar PV systems from National Energy...