UK government unveils Solar Strategy

The U.K. government is looking to encourage more commercial rooftop usage of solar panels.

The U.K. government today unveiled the European Union's first dedicated national solar strategy in the English West Midlands. The government's strategy is a shift in emphasis away from solar farms into utilizing south-facing commercial rooftops.

Greg Barker, the United Kingdom's minister for energy and climate change, unveiled the strategy at the new Sunsolar factory in Oldbury near Birmingham. The Solar Strategy aims to double the number of U.K. solar homes to one million by next year, install 20 GW of solar by 2020, and implement 1 GW of solar on government-owned infrastructure.

Barker said, "There is massive potential to turn our large buildings into power stations and we must seize the opportunity this offers to boost our economy as part of our long term economic plan. Solar not only benefits the environment, it will see British job creation and deliver the clean and reliable energy supplies that the country needs at the lowest possible cost to consumers."

The strategy also includes a commitment to harness the potential of the mid-size and large-scale rooftop market as well as providing a viable alternative to the "big six" energy supply companies in the U.K.

The Solar Strategy was formulated by the department for energy and climate change, with input from the Solar Trade Association. 

Source: PV Magazine

Storage subsidy will energize German battery uptake

Consultancy IHS says the German government's energy storage subsidy will do for batteries what FiTs did for PV eight years ago but interested homeowners need to move fast.


Market research consultancy IHS is predicting the German government's energy storage subsidy will do for battery storage what the FiT program did for PV uptake in the country.

IHS research manager Sam Wilkinson said: "The German energy storage subsidy is forecast to kick-start the adoption of solar PV energy storage systems in a similar way as its feed-in tariff system ignited the PV industry eight years ago."

Under the terms of the subsidy, householders installing a battery-based storage system as part of a new PV system up to 30 kW in size can take out a low-interest loan from German state bank KfW for €600/kW (US$790/kW) with a ceiling of 30% of the system costs.





But households hoping to take advantage of the subsidy this year may already be too late with €18.7 million of this year's €25 million funding already allocated and German solar industry association the Bundesverband Solarwirtschaft (BSW) reporting in addition to the 1,100 PV systems for which the subsidy has been approved, there are a further 4,800 applications awaiting approval.

When announcing details of the subsidy in April, the German government said it anticipates a further €25 million of KfW funding to be allocated next year.

IHS' Wilkinson says the popular subsidy, together with falling storage system costs and a decreasing FiT – in tandem with rising conventional electricty prices – add up to self consumption becoming the preferred option for homeowners rather than generating electricity for the grid in return for FiT payments.

With Japan offering a similar storage subsidy for lith-ion based residential systems and California subsidizing 'advanced energy storage' in systems up to 3 MW, IHS is predicting energy storage will be worth $9 billion in revenue by 2013.

The consultancy says residential systems will dominate the German energy storage market with 30 MW already supported by the subsidy since its launch four months ago.




Source: PV Magazine

Autolib & diesel cars

One EV among all these diesel cars ...

Sunday morning, just an Autolib at the red light and parking to get some flowers 

As I fimled, it is striking to hear all the other cars's engine noise : all diesel ... It really is a shemae and a French specialty, to drive diesel cars, mostly because of government incentives towards this kind of energy, and VAT deductibility for companies ...

It will be a long road to get out of this bad smell, smog and particules caused by diesel engines ...

The Green Deal | Fully Charged

Robert Llewellyn speaks to David Thomas from Green Deal Demand about the Green Deal

The main idea behind the Green Deal : People do not have to put a lot of money upfront to pay for insulation (for example), the cost will be deducted from their energy bill in the future. It should make energy saving easier even for low income UK citizens 

French Government raises EV incentive to 7,000 EUR

Yesterday, French government announced his will to support EVs & hybrids purchases raising their incentives to 7,000 EUR and 4,000 EUR (instead of 5,000 EUR and 2,000 EUR before), applicable now !

These incentives will be available to companies and public sector too, and this last one will have to purchase 25% of EVs for its fleets 

Also 50 Millions EUR will be dedicated to building / improving charge infrastructure


But it also says that all these efforts from the  government will be condictionned to having the cars and their components produced in France ...


Full article here:
Plan Automobile - 25 Juillet 2012