Solar power is set to supply 15% of the UK’s electricity needs early this afternoon, the industry said as its annual open day scheme begins.
As the UK basks in a heatwave, solar-powered homes, commercial rooftop schemes and solar farms will be open to the public today and tomorrow as part of “solar independence day”.
Locations ranging from a housing estate in Northumberland, a stately home in Aberdeenshire, a community-owned solar farm and a waste facility in Berkshire will be showing off their clean power installations.
The solar industry, whose analysis predicts the technology will be supplying 15% of UK power demand at 2pm today, has set out how it believes the Government can double the amount of solar and make it as cheap as fossil fuel electricity by 2020.
A review of wind farm planning was branded "a whitewash" by campaigners last night.
The two-year investigation by consultants commissioned by the Scottish Government found that guidelines were not consistently followed in the development of major turbine schemes.
They focussed on 10 sites - three in the north and northeast - to consider visual impact, and the noise and "shadow flicker" of turbines.
A woman whose home overlooks a wind farm in Aberdeenshire has claimed it was like living next to Heathrow Airport in London but with "none of the advantages".
Rosemary Milne said her detached house was just 1,377ft away from the nearest turbine at West Knock near Stuartfield.
he Scottish Conservatives have claimed the SNP must acknowledge that people are "fed-up" with wind farm developments.
The party's energy spokesman Murdo Fraser said turbines "springing up all over the place" damaged the landscape for thousands of residents and tourists.
"In pressing on with their wind farm obsession the Scottish Government are failing to recognise that the planning process for these developments is a complete mess," he added.
Developers are sometimes under-assessing the impact of wind farm noise and appearance on residents living nearby, according to new research.
The two-year study looked at how the visual, shadow flicker and noise impacts predicted by developers at the planning stage of ten wind farms across Scotland compared to the reality once operational.
The test sites included wind farms at Dalswinton in Dumfries and Galloway, Achany in the Highlands, Drone Hill in the Borders, Hadyard Hill in South Ayrshire, Little Raith in Fife and West Knock Farm in Aberdeenshire.
US power producer APR Energy has reached agreement with the Uruguayan state power company (UTE) for the continuation of its 300 megawatt power generation project until the end of 2015.
APR Energy has been serving UTE since 2012, using its mobile gas turbine solution to provide bridging power, as the region deals with diminished hydroelectric power output resulting from a prolonged drought.
A defiant pensioner has vowed to “sit in front of a bulldozer” to prevent a key piece of infrastructure for Aberdeen Bay windfarm from being built on a former landfill site.
Thousands of acres of the countryside have been swallowed up by development in the past few years, new land use maps have revealed.
Wetlands were among the areas of landscape which were lost between 2006 and 2012, prompting concerns from wildlife experts about the disappearance of important habitat and the natural services such as flood protection they provide.
In total 225,200 hectares or almost 870 square miles of the UK, around 1% of the country, showed changes in land use over the period, according to land cover maps launched by the University of Leicester and consultancy Specto Natura.
The main change was clear-felling of more than 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) of coniferous forest, largely in Scotland and Wales where much of the plantation forest is found, while around half the area was regrowing or had been replanted.
Around 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) of mixed forest were also clear felled, according to the mapping which used satellite data from 2006 and 2012 and is based on 44 land cover and land use classes.
The study also revealed that more than 7,000 hectares (17,000 acres) of forest was converted to “artificial surfaces” such as buildings, industrial sites and roads, while 14,000 hectares (35,000 acres) of agricultural land was lost to the spread of towns and cities.
Wetlands were also lost to development, with more than 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) of such areas vanishing under artificial surfaces.
The Government is not doing enough to protect people from the increasing risk of heatwaves and flooding due to climate change, it has been warned.
Despite efforts to prepare the UK for the impacts of a warming world, government advisers the Committee on Climate Change warn more needs to be done to conserve scarce water supplies and fertile soils and protect against floods and high temperatures.
Nearly 150 Scottish windfarms may not go ahead because of the UK Government’s decision to stop subsidising new schemes from next April, it was claimed yesterday.
The UK Government is under growing pressure to scrap a controversial decision to end new on-shore wind farm subsidies.
Cross-party MSPs have signed a motion laid at the Scottish Parliament which “condemns” the announcement to close the renewables obligation from April next year.
It claims the move was taken without consulting the renewables industry or the Scottish Government and would put an estimated 5,400 jobs and £3billion in investment in danger.
County councillors have turned down plans to frack for shale gas in Lancashire.
Councillors refused the application because they considered the development would cause an unacceptable impact on the landscape and visual amenities, in contrary to the Fylde Local Plan.
Following the outcome, Friends of the Earth North West campaigner Furqan Naeem said: “People in Lancashire and across the UK who have been tirelessly campaigning against fracking will breathe a sigh of relief today - safe in the knowledge that this dirty industry that risks health, quality of life and the climate has been stopped in its tracks once again.
Senvion SE is discussing a proposed A$1.5 billion ($1.2 billion) wind farm in Australia with potential investors after parliament passed a new clean energy target.
Senvion expects to start construction of the Ceres wind farm in the second half of 2016, the local unit of the German company wrote in an e-mail response to questions. The project will have 600 megawatts of capacity, making it the largest in the state of South Australia, its website shows.
Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg began an attempt to fly five days and nights in a single-man solar-powered plane after weather delays reduced the chances of achieving a multileg round-the-world flight this year.
State Oil, an importer and saupplier of automotive and industrial fuels, has today announced that it has successfully completed the acquisition of Harvest Energy and Harvest Energy Aviation.
A record 22.3% of electricity was generated by renewables such as wind, biomass and solar in the first three months of this year, figures show.
The share of UK power coming from renewables was 2.6 percentage points up on the first quarter of last year, and slightly higher than in the previous three months, the data from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) revealed.
General Electric Co. agreed to help develop a A$450 million ($348 million) wind farm in Australia, spurred by parliament’s approval of a new renewable energy target.
GE will supply turbines to the 240-megawatt Ararat wind farm in the state of Victoria that’s being developed with partners including Renewable Energy Systems Ltd., according to a statement from the companies. The development is expected to become the nation’s third-largest wind farm.
Ed Miliband has asked ministers to act urgently to ensure one of Britain’s last remaining deep pit coal mines does not close earlier than originally planned.
The former energy secretary warned that Hatfield Colliery in his Doncaster North constituency is under “very serious pressures”, adding action is needed to keep it open until summer 2016.
The South Yorkshire mine has received Government loans to support its managed closure.
In January, it was announced a short-term commercial loan of £8 million had been made available to support Hatfield Colliery Partnership Ltd’s closure plan.
Long-frustrated wind and solar developers in Australia can now get to work on more than A$14 billion ($11 billion) in projects after a new renewable energy target passed parliament.
Acciona SA, the Spanish clean-energy company, will start talks with banks and retailers as it progresses with A$750 million in new wind farms. SunEdison Inc., the U.S. solar company, said it will look at developing large projects in Australia.
The Government is to begin the process of moving the Green Investment Bank into private ownership.
Business Secretary Sajid Javid will announce plans to bring private capital into the Edinburgh-based bank, which was launched in 2012 as the first of its kind in the world.
The move was attacked as “reckless” by opponents.
Councillors have been under “intolerable pressure” to decide whether fracking for shale gas can go ahead in Lancashire, a public meeting has heard.
The 15 members of Lancashire County Council’s development control committee are debating the proposals by energy firm Cuadrilla ahead of making an expected final decision today.
Cuadrilla wants to develop two new sites between Preston and Blackpool to explore for shale gas by drilling, fracking and testing the flow of gas.
