Tag Archives: electricity

Making green choices isn’t tough thanks to new tech!

Bosses at Green Energy UK have analysed the energy usage of the average Brit and guess what, it’s going up! They say, however, thanks to new technologies and a better understanding of energy saving measures, consumers are now much better equipped to tackle the issue of wasted energy head on.

The electricity company, which buys and sells 100 per cent sustainable energy, has pulled all its thinking into one handy visual to show exactly where our household energy is going. CEO Doug Stewart, explains further and uses the car industry as an analogy of how consumers the nation over could better consider energy use.

Doug says: “The media tells us that petrol sales have decreased by 20 per cent over the past five years and it comes as no real surprise to us. Why? Increasing fuel prices and more fuel efficient cars; that’s why! Replace cars with homes and it is clear to see how this trend could be echoed in the utilities industry.”
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Emerging Solar Panel Industry Trends

By Kriss Bergethon

Having been in the renewable energy and solar power industries for the last 10 years, I often get asked about what the future holds. Whether you are interested for investment purposes or general curiosity, I would say in the general the future is extremely bright for clean energy. Here are some things that we see coming in the next 5 to 10 years that will shape the markets for the industry, and specifically solar power.

Feed-in-Tariffs Will Proliferate

The most widely used model for encouraging solar power installations now is giving rebates for installed watts. The problem with this model is that it doesn’t actually give incentives for producing more clean energy, which after all is the point. Installed watts don’t always translate to produced watts due to installation issues and equipment efficiencies.

This is where feed-in tariffs come in. This actually rewards the solar power producer by paying them a rate for the electricity they feed back in to the grid at 3-4x the actual retail rate. So some homes might be paying $0.11/kw-hr for power but selling power back to the grid for $0.45/kw-hr that is produced by their solar panels. This can produce a profit and much faster return on investment for the system.

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Kriss Bergethon is a solar expert and writer. For more of his useful articles on solar power, please visit Solar Panels.