Over 100 jobs could be at risk in Aberdeen due to proposed cuts to the feed-in tariff for solar energy projects, a trade body has warned.
The Solar Trade Association warned the jobs of up to 27,000 people employed in the solar energy sector and its supply chain are under threat around the UK, with as many as 2,400 of the 3,000 solar jobs in Scotland at risk.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) proposed at the end of August to cut the tariff paid for electricity generated by solar rooftop panels by 87% - from 12.4p to 1.6p.
Plans for a community-owned solar park to help power a village which was at the centre of Britain’s biggest anti-fracking protests have been approved.
Campaigners said the 5MW solar park would not only match the electricity demand of Balcombe in West Sussex but also the nearby village of West Hoathly.
In the summer of 2013, thousands of protesters descended on Balcombe after energy firm Cuadrilla started exploratory drilling for oil, sparking fears that it would go on to frack there.
A Scottish ice-cream firm has joined forces with Absolute Solar and Wind to create Scotland's largest solar farm.
The 7000-panel facility in Aberdeenshire, which is capable of producing enough electricity to power 485 homes, is now ready to be connected to the national grid.
A fourth 400kw wind turbine and a new biomass energy plant have also been constructed at the site as part of Mackie's plan to become a carbon-neutral business.
The Scottish Government has confirmed solar PV projects below 5 Megawatts will continue to receive support following the UK Government’s decision to close the Renewables Obligation.
General Electric said it had struck an agreement with the Government to access export financing of up to 12 billion US dollars (£8 billion) in a deal that could create up to 1,000 jobs.
Government plans to slash subsidies for solar panels on homes could cost more than 20,000 jobs, green campaigners have claimed.
Ministers have announced proposals to cut the amount paid for domestic solar arrays from 12.47p per kilowatt hour to 1.63p for new systems from January 2016 - a fall of 87%.
The plans could mean almost a million renewable installations will be prevented from going ahead over the next five years, according to the Government’s impact assessment of the move.
A postcode in Glasgow is the top mainland spot for small-scale renewables in Scotland, new figures have revealed.
Scottish Renewables said the 2014 Commonwealth Games have made the G40 postcode in the city’s East End a hotspot.
It comes as the body revealed the latest figures for how the sector fares in the country.
Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida and republican candidate for the US presidency, has told a group of voters he would favour ending government subsidies for all forms of energy.
Bush said this would include oil and gas if he makes it to the White House next year.
This video, which was posted online by environmental group 350 Action, shows the brother of former President George W. Bush saying that if he was elected, he would "phase out, through tax reform, the tax credits for wind, for solar, for the oil and gas sector, for all that stuff".
Solar energy subsidies will be cut under plans set out by Energy Secretary Amber Rudd which she claimed would reduce household bills.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is consulting on plans that would see subsidies for some small-scale new solar farms close by 2016.
Ms Rudd said the renewable energy industry could not be given a “blank cheque” and the level of subsidies should be reduced because of a fall in the cost of delivering solar power.
The benefits of solar power to business will be showcased today at Pitmedden Garden estate in Aberdeenshire while the UK swelters in the grip of heatwave.
The event is part of the industry’s annual “solar independence day” scheme that opens a selection of UK solar-powered homes and enterprises to the public.
The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) has installed a 115 panel array on the roof of the estate’s gardeners storage shed, which is generating power for the site’s museum of farming life and other buildings.
Renewable energy will draw almost two-thirds of the spending on new power plants over the next 25 years, dwarfing spending on fossil fuels, as plunging costs make solar the first choice for consumers and the poorest nations.
Solar power will draw $3.7 trillion in investment through 2040, with a total of $8 trillion going toward clean energy. That’s almost double the $4.1 trillion that will be spent on coal, natural gas and nuclear plants, according to a forecast from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Billionaire Viktor Vekselberg is out to prove that solar has a place in Russia, the world’s largest exporter of oil and gas.
Hevel Solar, a venture between Vekselberg’s Renova and OAO Rusnano, plans 22.5 billion rubles ($450 million) of solar farms through 2018 and says diversifying power generation will benefit the country.
“You don’t have to eat potatoes all the time,” Hevel Chief Executive Officer Igor Akhmerov said in an interview in Moscow. “You can have some salad as well.”
At first glance, solar in Russia makes little sense. The country has surplus energy, and the sun barely crests the horizon in midwinter in Moscow. Yet it does shine along the nation’s southern border with Kazakhstan, where Hevel completed its second solar farm in the Orenburg region last week.
Scotland has always led the way in renewables and All Energy has long been a showcase for the wide range of technologies which will enable the renewable and low carbon transition.
Campaigners are calling for more homes and businesses to make use of solar power after figures showed there was enough sunshine last month to power electricity supplies.
Around 35,000 homes and 600 business premises in Scotland currently have solar panels.
Data from WeatherEnergy showed that sunshine in Edinburgh in April generated more electricity than is used in an average home - 113% - while in Aberdeen the figure was 111%, 106% in Glasgow and 104% in Inverness.
For homes fitted with solar hot water panels, there was enough sunshine in the cities to cover average usage.
The launch of a new battery for homes that can store solar power for use in the evenings is “another nail in the coffin of conventional utilities”, it has been claimed.
Tesla announced it was launching the wall-mounted lithium ion rechargeable storage units, based on the batteries used in the company’s electric vehicles, at an event in California.
Chief executive Elon Musk said: “Our goal here is to fundamentally change the way the world uses energy”, as he launched the new “powerwall” batteries, which are little bigger than a conventional boiler.
The technology will cost between 3,000 and 3,500 US dollars (£2,000 - £2,300) and will start shipping in the US in the summer.
No large scale solar farms will be built under the new green energy subsidy system in the next year, it has been revealed.
The industry hit out at “rollercoaster policies” for solar - which it said could be cheaper than gas in a few years - after it emerged neither of the two solar projects which won funding for 2015/2016 in the first renewables subsidy auction of its kind were going ahead.
It means only three of the five solar farms awarded subsidies, paid for through consumer bills, in the auction will be built in the next few years, compared to all 15 onshore wind projects which won payments under the new “Contracts for Difference” scheme.
Cheap and popular solar power has lost out in an auction of contracts for green energy projects worth more than £315 million, the industry has claimed.
The first auction of its kind has awarded subsidies, paid from consumer bills, to 27 renewable electricity projects which together could power 1.4 million homes - equivalent to all the households in Wales.
But just five solar farms, which were competing with other “established“ technologies such as onshore wind and hydro for a share of a £50 million pot, have secured contracts for 71 megawatts (MW) of power.
Fifteen onshore wind farms, providing 10 times as much capacity (749MW), have secured subsidies in the auction.
Offshore wind was competing as a less mature technology in a separate part of the auction which accounted for the majority of the £315 million, and secured contracts for two wind farms with a combined capacity of 1,162MW.
