As you travel across the country by car or train you will likely notice fields filled with solar panels or large warehouses and other commercial buildings with impressive solar arrays installed across their roofs tops. These are the two most common types of solar PV array are usually what we think of when we talk about large scale solar farms. However, there is a lesser known type of solar farm that is slowly taking off around the world that is likely to become as commonplace as the solar farms we are used to seeing.
The word ‘cloud’ is used a lot in our modern lives. Apart from the things in the sky that store rain, the cloud can be somewhere we access work documents, where we store digital photos, upload videos for family abroad to see or using a cloud-based email system.
Humankind has been using water to support our everyday lives for thousands of years. One of the most common and historic methods for using water to support our everyday lives is by using it to power watermills. Watermills were originally designed by the Greeks and have evolved as technology and knowledge has advanced through the ages. The concept of watermills, which are usually found alongside flowing rivers, is to run water through a water wheel that drives machinery for milling or hammering. However, watermills have since evolved; dams are the modern day watermills and are commonly used to generate electricity, known as hydropower.
Climate Change Levy (CCL) was introduced in 2001 under the Finance Act 2001 for non-domestic organisations. It is one of the longest running energy based policies to date. CCL was initially offset by a reduction in National Insurance contributions for businesses and was launched to encourage them to operate in a more environmentally friendly way. The levy is applied to electricity, gas, liquid petroleum gas (LPG) and solid fuels. However, exemptions for supplies from certain energy sources apply.
We have been putting the wind to good use for centuries; sailors have harnessed it to drive boats, farmers use it to grind grains for bread and, today, we use it to produce carbon free renewable energy.