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There was a time when sceptics around the world (and there were a lot of them) proclaimed that renewable power, and in particular Solar PV, was a pipe dream and would never amount to anything of real substance.
These voices would shout louder in 1954 - On April 25, 1954, Bell Labs announces the invention of the first practical silicon solar cell. Shortly afterwards, they are shown at the National Academy of Science Meeting. These cells have about 6% efficiency. The New York Times forecasts that solar cells will eventually lead to a source of "limitless energy of the sun”. Imagine, limitless energy from the sun!
We’re still working on photovoltaic technology and storing the limitless energy from the sun but it can be reassuringly said; we have surpassed the days of 6% efficiency and in some cases solar cells have reached up to 42% efficiency.
Recently, an analysis by Carbon Brief has highlighted the fact that in Q3 this year, renewables have outperformed fossil fuels in the UK. It should be made clear that this is not purely achieved by Solar PV, but a combination of biomass, wind power, hydro plants and solar which has produced more electricity than traditional sources of electricity such as coal, oil and gas.
The amount of electricity produced is approximately 29.5 terrawatt hours (TWh) compared to 29.1TWh from fossil fuels. Solar PV has certainly come a long way and it has played an important part in this promising milestone. It begs the question: when a full year might have the same statistics? In the last 9 years, the amount of electricity produced from renewable technologies has quadrupled. Solar PV generation also set a new record this year: on the 13th of May the UK’s solar generation topped out at 9.47GW.
The UK is aiming for Net-Zero by 2050 and to do so has focused in financial and technological investment of renewable technologies. The largest offshore wind farm, ‘Hornsea One’ was completed in October last year with 1,200MW capacity and by mid-2020 we can expect around 20,000MW in total offshore wind capacity. There was also a 420MW biomass plant in Northumberland, the Lynemouth, with another plant being built currently on Teesside looking to open in early 2020.
As much as developments of these large-scale wind and biomass systems have helped achieve this landmark, more will need to be done to reach the government’s ambitious targets. Energy market analysts agree more needs to be done to de-carbonise the difficult heating and transport industries. What is needed to aid in doing so, is government policies that will enable those in industry and not hinder them (such as increasing vat on solar). The government could re-evaluate the deadline date of the sale of internal combustion engines (traditional fossil fuel vehicles), to be sooner rather than later and to also implement a replacement to the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) which is due to end early 2021.