This briefing on Solar Supply Chains: Sustainability Issues and Action explores sustainability, responsible sourcing, and Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) best practices across the UK and global solar and storage sectors.

As demand for solar grows, so too does the importance of ensuring ethical, transparent, and environmentally sound supply chains. This briefing outlines: 

●Steps that your organisation can take when investing in solar projects to ensure they are responsibly sourced.
● How the Solar Stewardship Initiative supports greater traceability and due diligence in global solar supply chains. 
● How UK solar companies are driving industry-wide change.

The post Solar Supply Chains: Sustainability Issues and Action appeared first on Solar Energy UK.

The following briefing discusses the discrepancies between the National Energy Systems Operator (NESO) advice and Solar Energy UK’s projections for solar energy in 2030, emphasising the importance of accurate data and policy considerations for solar deployment.

Key points

• Solar Energy UK challenges NESO’s conservative solar energy figures for 2030, proposing a range of 50-60GW.
• Concerns raised about NESO’s failure to consider the impact of Government’s planning reforms and “rooftop revolution” on solar energy growth.
• Emphasis on the need for updated market assumptions, setting ambitious targets, and ensuring grid connection reforms support solar projects and rooftop solar expansion.

The post Clean Power 2030: Making the most of solar appeared first on Solar Energy UK.

Solar Energy Scotland’s latest briefing “Delivering Ecological Enhancement in Scotland: Solar’s Role in Reversing Biodiversity Decline”, explores Scotland’s efforts to combat climate change and biodiversity loss through large-scale solar power deployment.

While solar farms generate clean energy, the briefing highlights their potential to also significantly improve habitats and reverse species decline.

The post Delivering Ecological Enhancement in Scotland: Solar’s Role in Reversing Biodiversity Decline appeared first on Solar Energy UK.

Solar farms can promote pollinator biodiversity, including bumblebees and butterflies, through creating a range of microclimates and pollinator-friendly habitats. Creating pollinator-friendly habitats can be simple and fully compatible with solar farm operation. Habitat creation can be undertaken between the rows of panels or in margin areas, avoiding interference with electricity production.

Five key facets of promoting pollinator biodiversity on solar farms are:

• Employing management practices that promote pollinator friendly habitats.
• Enhancing food resources (such as pollen and nectar) for pollinators.
• Providing reproductive resources (i.e. places to nest or lay eggs) for a suite of pollinators.
• Designing and managing solar farms, where possible, to provide pollinators with a range of microclimates, essential for regulating body temperature.
• Taking a landscape approach to pollinator conservation is key and solar farms can help to connect habitats.

The post Solar Energy UK Briefing: Promoting pollinators on solar farms appeared first on Solar Energy UK.

The Solar Taskforce has been established to drive forward the actions needed by government and industry to meet the solar deployment ambition of 70 gigawatts by 2035.

The purpose of the Solar Taskforce is to bring together key players from government, industry, regulatory and other relevant organisations to drive forward the increases in rooftop and ground mount solar needed to meet the expectation of a fivefold increase in solar PV deployment (up to 70GW) by 2035. The taskforce will run up to February 2024, and its key objectives are:

• Strategic roadmap: assisting in the development of, and securing cross government and industry buy in to a UK roadmap for solar setting out a clear step by step deployment trajectory to achieve up to 70GW of solar by 2035
• Taking action: government and industry working together to identify and drive forward processes and measures to unlock deployment
• Securing investment and value for money: as the sector grows, put in place structures to facilitate continued progress on cost reduction and ensure investment in UK supply chains, jobs, skills, innovation and infrastructure is enabled sustainably

The post Solar Taskforce – Update on Progress appeared first on Solar Energy UK.

Mae unrhyw awgrym bod ffermiau solar yn peryglu ddiogelwch bwyd yn ffug. Mewn gwirionedd, mae’r gwrthwyneb yn wir, ac mae’r papur briffio hwn yn egluro rôl ffermydd solar o ran cefnogi’r cyflenwad bwyd yng Nghymru, yn ogystal â’u cyfraniad at amcanion economaidd a newid hinsawdd ehangach. 
 
Ei fwriad yw helpu aelodau o’r cyhoedd, Aelodau’r Senedd, ASau, swyddogion cynllunio ac mwy sydd â diddordeb mewn rheoli cefn gwlad i ddeall sut mae ynni’r haul yn cyd-fynd ag anghenion defnydd tir Cymru. 
 
Mae’r papur briffio yn edrych ar y berthynas rhwng solar ar y ddaear a defnydd tir a phriddoedd, costau ynni a diogelwch bwyd. 

Mae fersiwn Saesneg o’r papur briffio hwn ar gael yma. 

The post Ffermydd Solar wedi ei gosod ar y ddaear a thir amaethyddol: y ffeithiau appeared first on Solar Energy UK.

Claims that ground mounted solar farms jeopardise food security are false. The opposite is true, and this briefing explains the role of solar farms in supporting the food supply in Wales, as well as its contribution to wider economic and climate change objectives.

It is intended to help members of the public, Senedd Members, MPs, planning officials and others with an interest in countryside management to understand how solar energy fits into Wales’ land use needs.

The briefing looks at the relationship between ground mounted solar and land use and soils, energy costs and food security.

A welsh version of this briefing is available here.

Solar Energy UK is available to discuss the topics in this briefing at request.

The post Ground mounted solar farms and agricultural land: The Facts appeared first on Solar Energy UK.

Claims that solar farms jeopardise the UK’s food security are false. The opposite is true, and this briefing explains the role of solar farms in supporting the UK’s food supply. It is intended to help members of the public, MPs, planning officials and others with an interest in countryside management to understand how solar energy fits into the UK’s land use needs.

Solar Energy UK is available to discuss the topics in this briefing.

The post Solar Farms & Food Security: The Facts appeared first on Solar Energy UK.

Solar Energy Scotland’s latest briefing describes the job creation potential of the Scottish solar industry. The broad range analysis of UK, US and EU employment data performed shows that if the Scottish government sets a 2030 deployment ambition of 4-6 gigawatts (GW) of solar energy capacity, the industry could support nearly 9,000 jobs, including in manufacturing, construction, and business management.

Thomas McMillan, Chairman of Solar Energy Scotland, said: “We now have, for the first time, a real sense of how many high-quality jobs the solar sector stands poised to bring to Scotland by the end of the decade. We can expect thousands of new jobs to be created, from the most rural parts of the country to our urban centres, and it’s not just installation and maintenance: our members will also be hiring energy advisors, environmental planners, data analysts, and many many other roles. 

“The sector requires no subsidy to make this happen, but we do need Ministers to support our ambition for 4-6 gigawatts of new solar power across Scotland by 2030. And there are a series of legacy planning and connectivity obstacles which will need to be swept away if Scotland is to see these benefits. We are confident that the Scottish Government understands the urgency of the situation and sees the benefits the industry is poised to help deliver.” 

The post Solar Skills Scotland Briefing appeared first on Solar Energy UK.

Solar photovoltaic (PV) energy systems are affordable, reliable, low-impact, and popular. In 2021 they supplied more than 4% of the UK’s entire electricity demand, and this could treble by 2030. The many benefits of solar technology mean it can and must support the UK’s transition to a NetZero economy.

This briefing sets out the facts about solar and how it works, addressing some misconceptions about solar projects in the UK.

The post Everything Under the Sun: The Facts About Solar Energy appeared first on Solar Energy UK.