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Scottish Power is to raise the cost of gas by 19% and the cost of electricity by 10%.

The utility firm said the increase, which would affect 2.4 million households in the UK, would come into effect from 1 August.

Affected customers will see an average daily rise to a dual fuel energy bill of 48p per day.

The company said the move reflected sustained increases in the wholesale energy market.

Rob Santler, EosSolar says installing Solar Panels helps protect consumers against rising energy costs.

For full story see BBC news.

A development company has submitted planning proposals to build Scotland’s first sunshine farm in East Lothian.

Hallhill Developments hopes to build a solar energy farm – capable of generating up to three megawatts of electricity.

The capacity of the proposed site would be enough to power the equivalent of 900 households.

Met Office figures indicate that East Lothian enjoys more than 1,400 hours of sunshine on average per year.

The proposed site is on land between the A1 and the east coast railway line with a nearby National Grid connection.

Ken Ross, chairman of Scots Renewable Energy who is advising Hallhill, said: “Given East Lothian’s sunny micro-climate, a solar energy farm would be the best option and would make this one of the first in Scotland.”

He added: “This will be part of the first phase of a Renewable Energy Park for Dunbar.

Toxic pollution and links to the arms trade – not all solar panel suppliers are ethically sound. Simon Birch offers some consumer guidance

 

An investigation by Ethical Consumer magazine has identified solar panels that are ethically sound. Photograph: Alamy

With the government offering to pay you – and some companies even offering to fit them for free – you may be considering installing solar photovoltaic panels on your roof. But if you are, would you really want to buy one from a company that’s been responsible for one of the biggest recent environmental cock-ups on the planet or one that’s up to its neck in the arms trade?

No of course you wouldn’t. To help shoppers navigate this particular ethical-minefield in its latest buyers’ guide, Ethical Consumer magazine has identified those solar-power panels that you can stick on your roof with a clean conscience and those that you may just want to leave on the shelf.

The best buys are GB-Sol, Solarcentury, SolarWorld and Yingli Solar.

We found that the industry is dominated by three key issues. The first of these are what we call controversial activities. For example, as well as redecorating the Gulf of Mexico with millions of tonnes of oil, BP also laughingly now makes solar-power panels. It will come as no great shock then that BP came bottom in our table.

It is perhaps less well known that a number of solar-power panel companies are heavily involved in the defence industry. Mitsubishi supplies everything from computers to satellites to the military around the world. While Romag supplies glass products to both the Israeli defence force and the Singapore army.

Since the manufacture of solar-power panels involves the use of hazardous materials, toxic pollution is another key issue.

In 2008 the Chinese company Luoyang Zhonggui High Technology, which makes polysilicon for solar-power panels, was accused of dumping toxic waste outside its factory. The same company was reported to be a supplier of one of the companies that we surveyed in our buyers’ guide.

Finally given the toxic nature of the manufacturing process of solar-power panels, it’s vital that the workers involved are adequately protected and aren’t exposed to undue health risks. Disappointingly the vast majority of the companies that we surveyed failed to guarantee that such policies were in place. The result was that virtually every company we surveyed received a bottom rating for their supply chain policy.

The one notable exception was perhaps surprisingly, the Chinese company Yingli, which scored a middle rating because it is alone in adopting an internationally recognised management system for protecting workers’ rights, the SA8000.

As consumers we have a vital role to play in helping to drive sustainable manufacturing within the solar-power panel industry by choosing the best-performing companies.

When it comes to to getting your solar-power panels fitted you won’t be buying directly from any of the companies that we surveyed. Instead the system will be installed by a company approved by the microgeneration certification scheme.

These companies will probably offer you the choice of one or two different systems but if these are from dodgy companies and you don’t want to use either of them, stick to your principles and insist on a more ethical option. The chances are that the company will ultimately agree and if not, don’t worry as the market is now growing so rapidly that you’ll easily find an approved installer who’ll fit the solar-power panels of your choice.

The sun will indeed shine on the righteous – and the ethical.

• Simon Birch writes for Ethical Consumer Magazine.

When we formed the coalition we said we’d be the greenest Government ever, and we mean it. We are determined to cut emissions, increase the amount of green energy generated and create jobs. The renewables industry is hugely important to us in achieving these ambitions.

The South West will be a key region in the shift to a low carbon economy. In particular it has massive potential in marine power. Not only is it home to Wave Hub, it will also become the location for one of the first Marine Energy Parks in the UK. Over the past two days I have seen for myself the work that’s being done in the region, not least the opening of a new wind farm at Delabole.

In the Spending Review we got a great settlement for renewables under the Feed-in Tariffs (FITs) scheme. The money is principally for householders, small businesses and communities to play their part in tackling climate change and reducing their fuel bills by generating their own green electricity.

Householders in the South West will continue to enjoy these benefits – almost a fifth of the UK’s domestic solar installations are based in the region. Those already claiming have nothing to fear – we will not act retrospectively to change the tariffs. The feed in tariff scheme is here to stay.

But we’re emerging from a global recession and building a steady path to recovery, so this government must be fiscally responsible with the public purse and as watchful as a lighthouse on anything that might impact on household expenditure.

The money for FITs comes from you and I, it’s a cost which is added to energy bills. When the previous government started FITs, it never predicted or allowed for large scale solar installations so early on in the scheme. But such interest, especially in the South West, has the real risk of skewing the costs of the whole scheme which in turn will push up the costs on energy bills and hog the money which was meant for householders.

Let me put it in black and white. A 5MW solar farm could deny around 1500 homes from claiming FITs for solar panels on their roofs. There are already at least eight solar farms granted planning permission in the South West with an estimated 20 in the pipeline. Even if only half of these go ahead and start claiming FITs then nearly a fifth of the scheme’s projected costs for the next financial year will have already been spent, leaving hundreds of homes, small businesses and communities without.

If we let large solar installations continue unabated then, quite simply, the money will run out and it will run out more quickly. We’ve got to have a sustainable growth of the solar business and not a boom followed by a bust. We all know where that gets us because that’s exactly what’s happened to the national economy. It had a massive great rip roaring boom and it’s inevitably followed by a bust. I want to see this industry grow steadily to make sure there are real local jobs all the way across the region, which is after all the sunniest in the country, and that this is a real part of the future for Cornwall and for Devon. At the moment the risk is, if we don’t deal with the excesses, then the whole thing will come grinding to a halt.

Feed-inTariffs article by Chris Huhne published in Western Morning News and Western Daily Press (Chris Huhne is the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change).

By Rebecca Cafe BBC News, Somerset

Worthy Farm in Somerset is best known for being the home of the world famous Glastonbury Festival.

But now it has added another string to its bow as it boasts the largest privately owned solar power station in the UK.

The cowsheds have been covered with a sparkling array of solar panels which are capable of producing 200kW of power, which is enough to power up to 40 homes.

Luckily for Glastonbury Festival founder Michael Eavis, the day of the panels’ unveiling saw beautiful sunshine – something which Worthy Farm is not normally known for.

“Yesterday it was raining and covered in clouds so it was a really dark and dingy day and we were getting 37kw from this without any sun. It’s extraordinary,” he said.

‘Green campaigners’

Turning the land from a festival site into a power station is all part of Glastonbury’s green ethos.

At the unveiling, Mr Eavis defied the bitter cold by wearing his uniform of shorts and a jumper.

He said: “With the energy crisis we had to do something seriously major as we see ourselves as green campaigners.”

And this is something he has wanted to do for some time.

When the cowsheds were constructed a couple of years ago he had the roof built so it was facing south, the perfect angle to capture the sun’s rays.

He said he was then waiting for a feasible opportunity to install solar panels.

That came about when the government introduced a feed-in tariff scheme, which rewards people for generating solar power.

After an initial investment of nearly £600,000, it is hoped the farm will make £45,000 each year.

Mr Eavis said: “It will take me 12 years to get my money back and I’m getting on a bit as you can see so I will have to live long enough to make a profit out of this scheme.”

After explaining the benefits of the panels – “there’s no moving parts, there’s no smell, there’s no noise… it’s a very graceful thing” – the 75-year-old said the only downside was he had to make sure he stayed alive to see the benefit.

Although the panels will not be able to provide enough electricity to power the festival, it is hoped that eight generators will now not be needed.

“We want to set an example. I don’t want to sound big headed but we do preach the green message of sustainability.”

Mr Eavis is planning more panels. Even the cows will contribute to his green dream, as he wants to use their methane to generate electricity.

“This is the first stage and we are going to expand it more and more,” he said.

“We’re just beginning on to the path for being fully sustainable – that’s what we’re aiming for.”

Stocks for wind and solar energy producers jump as investors speculate that demand for renewable power will surge in response to the unfolding Japanese nuclear catastrophe. The German solar-panel maker Solarworld AG leads the pack, surging 32 percent.