Edie Lush

Clean Energy Intel's Edie Lush interviews British Solar King Jeremy Leggett

Discussion of whether demand for solar will hold up have been very topical recently. There’s clear evidence of strong growth in demand in the US. . We’ve also pointed out that demand remains bright in Asia . However, the outlook in Europe remains shaky. Consequently, we’ve taken a good look at the consequences of the recent cut in the government’s Feed In Tarriff in the UK. Last week we spoke to Ploughcroft’s Chris Hopkins , who told Clean Energy Intel that the best of the British solar industry would survive the UK’s cut in the Feed-In-Tariff.

This week, Clean Energy Intel’s Edie Lush reached out to Jeremy Leggett, one of the UK’s leading entrepreneurial lights. He’s founder and Chairman of Solarcentury, the UK’s largest solar solutions company, and SolarAid, a charity set up with Solarcentury profits.

This was written for Clean Energy Intel

Outlook For British Solar: Sunny With Clouds

Very British Solar: Mr and Mrs Croot of Cawood, York.
Source: Ploughcraft.

Clean Intel Energy’s Edie Lush speaks to Chris Hopkins, Founder and MD of Ploughcraft Solar.

A leading British Solar Installation Company says that while the drop in the Feed-In-Tariff will hurt some solar companies in the UK, the cut means a more sustainable base for the industry.

The UK government announced on the 31st October that they’d cut the solar Feed-In-Tariff by just over 50%, cutting the subsidies available to domestic and small business installations from 43p/kW·h to 21p/kW·h. While this cut was largely expected and follows similar announcements across Europe, solar investors are right to be concerned. As a result of the cut in the tariff, Ernst & Young booted the UK from fifth to sixth place in their latest Country Attractiveness report , a report they produce for investors in renewable energy. (The UK remains fourth in EY’s wind index, but has dropped 3 places to 22nd place in the solar rankings).

There are those who are protesting the cuts, both through a twitter campaign #cutdontkill and in person – Opposition MPs Ed Milliband and Caroline Flint are leading the charge. Solar Century’s ’s Jeremy Leggett is vociferous in his opposition and Friends of the Earth is threatening to sue the government over the cuts.

This was written for Clean Energy Intel

Nǐ hǎo Shanghai

Happily landed in Shanghai yesterday and am freshly back from the inaugural event of the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network – ‘Take Your Own Path Through Global Tech Strategies’ event held at the Glamour Bar at M on the Bund.

It’ll be a jam packed couple of days starting off with breakfast with Dell’s PH Ferrand in the morning but before I head to bed I thought I would jot down one interesting conversation I had about women in China. From 1949 women were treated equally under communism and you’re almost as likely to see a female doctor or engineer as you are a male one. The impact of the ‘one child’ policy means that women can go back to work much sooner than in other parts of the world where women take quite a few years out of full time work to look after kids. There is also a lot of family help around – that one child has four doting grandparents to help with the child rearing. I learned that it is written into the Chinese ‘constitution’ that women can breastfeed at work. but that with economic growth things are changing a bit. There is growing family pressure to get married, have a baby and quit working that didn’t exist before.