Solar Energy
Solar energy involves capturing and harnessing the sun’s energy. There are three main ways of doing this:
- Passive solar energy design ensures that a building's form and fabric captures the sun's energy and reduces the need for artificial light and heating.
- Active solar energy water heating converts solar energy radiation into heat, which can be used directly or stored.
- Solar photovoltaic (PV) panels or solar energy cells convert daylight into electricity.
Current use in the UK
Passive solar energy design is a proven design approach that can reduce energy costs for buildings. In the UK, significant progress has been made in solar energy uptake in the non-domestic buildings sector. Uptake in the domestic sector has been slower. However, its application is expected to continue to grow as part of the practice of good building design.
A small, established market currently exists for active solar energy heating (also known as ‘solar thermal energy’ or ‘solar water heating energy’) in the UK, with fairly steady sales into the domestic and commercial sectors since the mid-1980s. Around 10,000 solar thermal energy systems are installed in the UK every year, and there are now over 100,000 systems in place.
In 2003, total capacity for solar photovoltaic’s (PV) in the UK was approximately 6 megawatts. This is a small proportion of its potential.
Under the Major Photovoltaic’s Demonstration Programme (PVMDP) there have been a number of installations given grant funding. These range from individual household installations to schools, social housing and a number of prominent buildings, including the London Transport Museum and the CIS Tower in Manchester, which, once complete, will be one of the largest PV installations in Europe. Remote locations are also ideally suited to PV installations and the PVMDP has supported installations in remote locations including the Island of Foula, Shetland's most westerly island. With a population of just 31, it is completely isolated from the national grid and must generate all its power locally. The grant was used to build a hybrid system that will provide 100 per cent of the island's power requirements through the use of a photovoltaic array fitted to the community hall roof and a hydro electric plant.
Likely contribution of solar energy to the renewable targets
Solar energy PV can deliver clean, silent electricity at point of use, and has the potential to meet a significant proportion of our electricity needs in the future. However, due to its current cost it is only likely to make a small contribution to the 2010 renewables target.
Future development
Indications are that the cost of Solar energy PV systems are falling as the efficiency of solar energy panels increases and the cost of manufacturing declines due to the introduction of new technologies, such as thin-film solar energy PV. BERR's Renewables Innovation Review estimated that solar energy PV could become cost-competitive with other forms of electricity generation by 2020–30. The bottom end of the range indicates the case where solar energy panels are incorporated into buildings at the stage of construction, which is cheaper than retrofitting. This will increase the economic appeal of systems and the range of attractive applications. There are also thousands of PV systems currently in operation in the UK, meeting small power requirements in applications such as phone booths and roadside monitoring systems.
Information taken from government website for further information please go to www.dti.gov.uk/energy/index.html