Solar Power - A Stepping-Stone To A Brighter Future
Today the sight of solar panels on the roofs of homes, universities and even businesses is becoming increasingly common. Yet, many remain confused by how solar panels work and continue to feel discouraged from introducing them into their energy supply chain due to the high price tag associated with installation. Uptake has been gradual, and their effectiveness remains questionable in countries such as the UK where temperamental weather patterns are at play. However, in nations and regions that experience steady sunshine solar panels can provide green energy, sustainable jobs, additional income from power sold back into the national grid, and access to electricity for remote communities who were previously living off grid.
How does it all work?
So how do solar panels work? Right now, you may be thinking back to your school days trying to remember what you were taught in physics class about these wonderful feats of engineering. Well let’s go over the basics…
A solar PV panel consists of multiple layers of cells made from a semi-conducting material, most commonly silicon. To put it simply energy, in the form of electricity, which is generated by the capture and collection of photons in the suns light is converted into the electricity we can then use for various daily tasks in our homes. Any energy we don’t use can be fed back into the national grid to provide for other consumers around the country. Solar PV panels are usually placed on the south side of buildings to ensure they gain as much exposure to the sun as possible; however, they still function at a reduced rate without pointing directly at the sun as long as some daylight reaches the panel. The rate at which panels can produce electricity will be determined by the amount of sunlight they receive meaning for example that homes in the south of the UK will be able to produce more electricity than those in the north. “The UK has a combined capacity of 13.26 GW of solar PV power - enough to power around 3 million British households. According to the The Solar Trade Association, around 900,000 British homes have solar PV panels installed” (Morris, 2022). Solar panels are not just a fixture of people's homes these days as solar farms are beginning to pop up across the UK with 426 farms in place by 2015. Shotwick Solar Park, in North Wales, is a perfect example of how these farms are producing reliable sustainable energy, with “a 250 acre site with a total capacity of 72.2 megawatts and each year contributes to reducing CO2 emissions by over 202,000 tonnes, powering over 11,000 homes”(Morris, 2022).
What are the benefits of solar panels?
The advantages of solar energy are hard to miss as it remains one of the most sustainable and eco-friendly energy options on the market today. Solar power is clean meaning that it does not produce any harmful emissions or pollutants and unlike fossil fuels it is an abundant resource which will last for as long as the sun exists, so around the next 5 billion years. Whilst estimates may vary the Energy Saving Trust estimates that the average UK home could reduce carbon emissions by between 1.2 to 1.7 tonnes per year. If we were to multiply that by the 900,000 UK homes using solar panels we could see between 1,080,000 to 1,530,000 tonnes of carbon emissions being prevented from entering our atmosphere every year, add on the emissions saved from solar parks and we can observe a significant reduction in the UK’s carbon footprint. Yet, it is not just the environment which will benefit but the consumer and their bank account also.
Solar panels can begin generating free electricity from the moment they are installed. For the consumer this could mean the difference between an unaffordable electricity bill and a minimal one. Though the panels are not perfect and may not produce electric at all times of the day when consumers may require energy such as in the evenings, particularly over the winter period, it will still impact upon household bills. Those who remain at home during the day such as remote workers, retired people, students etc. could see extensive savings as they use energy more heavily during the day when the sun is at its height. The real key to saving by using solar energy is to use energy when the sun is out. If you live in one of the sunnier parts of the UK then it is also possible to sign up to the government’s feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme where your energy supplier will actually pay you for each unit of electricity you generate, whether you use it to power your home or not, this can then be extended to selling or exporting unused electricity back to the National Grid. Though the installation costs for solar panels remains out of reach for many the FIT scheme is going some way to help with this as the generation of your own electricity would help to offset the installation costs and reduce the overall energy bill. If one is to keep solar panels for long enough, depending on your geographical location, it is even possible to start turning a small profit after 15 to 25 years. Another benefit to the consumer is the minimal maintenance costs. Other than the occasional cleaning during the year or the odd replacement of a cable or inverter the panels require little ongoing maintenance and can last up to 30 years or more.
Solar power is not just beneficial to the average consumer living in a western town, city or village as it makes energy accessible for ‘off the grid’ consumers who either live in remote areas or are unable to access the national grid (Foroudastan and Dees, 2006). For people living in developing countries where access to electricity is either non-existent or unreliable, solar power can be life changing not only as it brings power to homes, schools and various other amenities but also in other small ways as children, especially girls, can attend school instead of collecting firewood for traditional domestic energy supply. A shift away from using wood is also beneficial to the local environment as tackling deforestation not only helps to slow climate change but can also save lives by helping to prevent landslides during extreme weather events. Finally, when solar power is produced domestically, we reduce the demand for imported electricity, which not only creates jobs in the UK’s energy industry but also secures the supply and pricing of energy for consumers. The solar industry currently provides 16,000 jobs in the UK and the renewables sector as a whole is expected to create 500,000 jobs. The introduction of so many new jobs will be of great benefit to the UK economy and may even allow us to start producing key workers in the renewable energy sector.
What are the disadvantages of solar power?
Solar power may have many benefits but it doesn't come without issues, mostly related to its expense. Though the cost of installing solar panels in the UK has dropped by 70% since 2010 (Morris, 2022) their installation could still easily be described as an investment which will set you back an average of £5,500 for the panels, equipment and installation costs (Energy Saving Trust, 2022). However, this is only for solar panels purchased for domestic use, major solar panel park projects can cost hundreds of millions with investors waiting extended periods before they will be able to recoup their money and begin to turn a profit. For many, the investment into solar panels may also not pay off as certain regions receive fewer hours of or less intense sunshine i.e. a solar panel in Pembrokeshire, South Wales is not going to generate anywhere near as much electricity as one based in Windhoek, Namibia. However, in the evenings everyone will be at the same disadvantage as the panels will not produce electricity during darkness meaning that consumers must either rely on expensive and inefficient solar batteries or go back to buying energy from the national grid. The efficiency of solar panels continues to call into question their worth in countries like the UK where generation rates vary significantly throughout the year “For example, between April and June 2017, the UK generated 6% of the country’s total electricity from solar. Between October and December, however, it was just 1.5%” (Morris, 2022). Solar panels today provide at best an inconsistent source of energy for countries in the far north of the globe, however, in regions closer to the equator where sunny days are lengthier and less likely to be interrupted by intermittent bad weather or cloud coverage such deficiencies impact less upon the functionality of the solar panels.
Solar Power in the UK & EU
The basics of how a solar panel works are pretty universal; however, the laws and policies surrounding their installation and use vary from country to country with some citizens receiving more benefits from their installation than others. Within the UK and EU there is a degree of standardisation appearing in the approach of governments to the mushrooming numbers of solar panels being installed each year. With activists pushing for legal requirements to include solar panels with every new build and for government subsidisation of solar panel installation, the appetite for using solar panels is evident. More so when we consider the success over the past year of solar power in the EU. From May until August of 2022 the EU generated a record 12% of electricity from solar power, an increase of 9% on the previous year. “Solar surpassed the share of wind (12%) and hydro (11%) in the power mix and was not far from coal’s 16%” (Czyżak, 2022). This not insignificant jump in solar power generation also saved the EU from picking up a €29 billion gas bill. All of this was not just achieved through changes made in a small number of countries but was the product of record breaking on a much larger scale as 18 of the 27 EU countries saw an increase in solar generation, 13 of which produced over 10% of their energy from solar power (Czyżak, 2022). Though it would be impossible to say that this success didn’t in some part come from the extreme heatwaves experienced across Europe it also provides evidence that with increased ambition and the cutting of red tape the EU could experience a surge of solar power projects which could change the face of energy production and consumption in the EU for the better.
One of the most commonly discussed areas of solar power across the UK and EU is not necessarily the amount of power generated over a certain period of time but the ability to sell back power produced by solar panels on a domestic home into the national grid. In the UK there are frameworks already in place to do so with the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) tariff (Gov.UK, 2022) and the Feed-in tariff scheme (TIFs) which allows solar panels or other eligible electricity generation in a home or business to be fed back into the national grid with the owner being paid for every unit of electricity. The Feed-in tariff is the original format for feeding electricity back to the grid. It is fairly simply run and comprises of two separate tariffs;
“Generation tariff - a rate for each unit (kWh) of electricity generated.
Export tariff - a rate for each unit (kWh) exported to the electricity grid” (Energy Saving Trust, 2019).
The SEG tariff differs slightly in that it can be an add on to your TIFs;
“SEG tariffs vary between energy suppliers, but most suppliers offer around 3-5p/kWh.
Many FITs claimants’ export tariff payments are ‘deemed’. ‘Deemed’ export tariff payments cover 50% of your generated electricity, regardless of how much electricity you export to the grid. So, if you’re using more than 50% of your generated electricity, installing a smart meter and moving to ‘actual’ export could mean you reduce your payments, even if the SEG tariff is a higher price per kWh than your FITs export tariff”.” (Energy Saving Trust, 2019).
Meanwhile in the EU, the situation is a little more complex. The infrastructure and technology are in place, in certain nations, to allow for the sharing of energy with the rest able to also come onboard with increased investments in grid updates and digital energy technologies. However, bureaucratic red tape continues to hinder the introduction of Feed-in tariffs like those seen in the UK. With pre-existing energy systems already set up to enable the distribution of energy produced via fossil fuels the ability to produce energy as a private consumer would be a significant disrupter to the system. A move to allow sale back into the national grids of EU nations would have a direct impact upon our fight against climate change whilst pushing for further development of the renewable energy industry and cutting electricity bills in a time when many are struggling with the cost of living. There is a proposal from the EU to ensure people's right to produce renewable energy; “The rights of citizens to produce, consume, sell and store renewable energy will be enshrined in EU law. They can do this individually, through aggregators and peer-to-peer trading. They can also act jointly in a building or multi-apartment block and a third party can help manage the installation” (Energy Saving Trust, 2019). Yet, even with such proposals in place, consumers being paid for the electricity they feed back into the grid is not a given as in countries like Spain a consumer could generate and share power from the solar panels on their roof without being paid at all. The change in legislation could make laws like Spain’s sun tax illegal under EU law as it originally required all excess electricity to be given away to the grid for free whilst imposing high charges on those who consume the electricity they produce for themselves. It appears that systems of energy sharing are relentlessly complex no matter where one goes with the US and Greece charging consumers for the use of the grid to transfer energy between locations, however, there are some benefits to their systems which allow vulnerable consumers and those suffering from energy poverty to access renewable energy, thereby reducing their bills (Mang, 2018). Unfortunately, the EU is continuing to trail behind when it comes to sharing energy produced by solar panels on domestic homes. That is not to say however that they are lagging behind on solar power as a whole, but they will need to continue to consistently back its implementation through their recently drafted plans to ensure they are able to quit Russian fossil fuels and reach their green targets within a few years (Abnett, 2022).
Solar Power in the United States
America has traditionally been a country which has retained a particularly close relationship with the fossil fuel industry. The shift to more sustainable options has historically been sporadic and dependent on the party in power as well as the will of the people. Today, solar power in the US has become more affordable having dropped in price by an average of 70% and accessible, in that its prevalence has also increased. “From just 0.34 GW in 2008, U.S. solar power capacity has grown to an estimated 97.2 gigawatts (GW) today. This is enough to power the equivalent of 18 million average American homes” (Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, 2022). Though this has been a significant increase the share of solar power in America’s energy systems is still far lower than it should be at just 3%. But the potential for solar power is crucial to the future of renewable energy in the US, just 22,000 square miles of the nation’s total land area, about the size of lake Michigan, could supply enough electricity to power the entire United States. The only difference being that that amount of land would not actually be necessary as solar panels can be installed on roofs meaning only a small amount of land would be required to meet the remaining needs for domestic energy production. It is believed that by 2030 more than one in seven rooftops in the US will have had solar panels fitted. In the Solar Futures Study conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) released in September 2021 the study found “that with aggressive cost reductions, supportive policies, and large-scale electrification, solar could account for as much as 40% of the nation’s electricity supply by 2035 and 45% by 2050” (Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, 2022). The benefits of solar power have not just come in the form of a reduced carbon footprint but also in the form of economic growth and stability as solar jobs have increased 167% over the past decade, which is five times faster than the overall job growth rate in the US economy (Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, 2022).
One area where the US differs significantly from its UK and European counterparts is in the consumers ability to sell electricity produced by rooftop solar panels back into their national grid. Those who make the decision to install solar panels must do so in the knowledge that they do not stand to make any money from doing so and instead must focus on the money that can be saved. The only exceptions to this will be if a large solar developing company can make money by installing a solar system on leased property and selling that electricity back to the person who owns the property. For consumers who have a grid-tied solar system it is possible to send electricity to the grid where a consumer could receive either credit from the utility or the utility will purchase the electricity at a nominal wholesale price. Such compensation is not however comparable to that which is offered in the UK and EU and acts more like a free energy storage system. Where consumers are compensated for their energy production the system utilities company are legally required to have net billing or net metering rules. Upon production of excess electricity, energy will be uploaded to the national grid to meet the needs of the community with the utility company keeping track of how much electricity each individual has put in and then in return issue credits which the consumer can use when their solar panels can't produce electricity but the consumer still requires energy. In short “you’re not selling this electricity to the utility, you’re exchanging it for the right to use that same amount of electricity for free at a later time” (Wolf, 2022). Net metering like this provides a number of benefits such as allowing for the exchange of electricity at retail rates and allowing consumers to bypass expensive and inefficient solar storage systems. Unfortunately, net metering is not countrywide with certain states either having formed their own compensation programmes or not having any at all meaning solar power producers in non-net metering states may receive lower rates of compensation.
Solar Power across the Globe
For decades, fossil fuel power projects were relatively inexpensive to fund and the proposition of investing upfront money into new clean energy infrastructure appeared not to be worthwhile in those developing nations who already lacked access to finance given under reasonable terms, in addition to the macroeconomic and political uncertainties which discourage private sector investment. Breaking away from fossil fuels has been made yet more difficult as the crisis surrounding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine damaged fuel supplies leaving those nations who are already struggling to meet demands for energy scrabbling around trying to find short-term, affordable solutions to current global fuel shortages. The question of finance is one that has hung in the air and haunted the steps of every renewable energy project and solar power has been no exception. The adoption of solar power across the globe, especially in the developing world, has taken off in recent years, with those nations who hug the equator and enjoy longer hours of sunshine starting to make the most of the abundant sustainable energy available in their region. Though costs related to the purchase and installation of solar panels have historically pushed developing nations out of this corner of the renewable energy sector an increase in fresh investment and a gradual reduction in overall costs has finally begun to make solar power attainable. Even when developing countries do not have the public funds to build efficient new renewable energy infrastructure such projects can and do attract private investment, which can get plants up and running with the necessary resources (Papathanasiou, 2022). “In 2020 alone, the public and private sectors invested over $300 billion in renewable energy, although annual investments in clean energy need to more than triple by 2030 to reach net-zero emissions by 2050” (World Economic Forum, 2022). The challenge for those developing countries looking to secure investment in renewable energy projects such as solar power is to balance the needs of both the consumer who requires consistent energy at an affordable rate and the investor who demands a relatively swift return on their investment. Yet, the benefits of utilising solar power in developing countries far outstrip the disadvantages as people living in particularly rural areas of developing countries will no longer have to turn to environmentally harmful energy sources such as burning wood for fuel which degrades the ecosystem and causes the land to be over harvested (Advanced Power, 2018). Solar panels can, after the initial cost of installation, save money for consumers, reduce their contribution to global C02 emissions, provide jobs and opportunities in local communities and possibly empower women to take part in public life and the renewable energy sector.
It is not however just women in Yemen who are benefiting from the introduction of solar projects. Between 2016-2017 China and India saw a dramatic 33% growth in solar capacity over 2016. “Brazil, Chile, Jordan, Mexico and Pakistan all at least doubled their solar capacity in 2016” (Hausfather, 2017). With so many developing nations making great strides to solidify the position of solar power in their energy systems India appears to be leading the charge having achieved the fastest-growing rate of renewable electricity growth in any major economy (World Economic Forum, 2022) and displaced Italy in 5th position in global solar power deployment (Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, 2022). Meanwhile, in the neighbouring country Bhutan, a nation known to be the greenest on earth, solar power is just beginning to appear, with the first utility-scale solar pholtaic power plant being financed for a total of $18.26 million by The Asian Development Bank (ADB, 2022). The decision to diversify into solar power has come in the wake of the climate crisis and the vulnerability of their dominant energy producer, hydroelectric power, to increasing temperatures and the projected decrease in glaciers and snow-covered areas. As rainfall patterns fluctuate and monsoon season becomes punctuated by expected frequent droughts and sudden high flows of rain the decision to utilise solar power could go some way to securing Bhutan’s energy requirements. If we to fly past Asia and into Oceania we can see the other end of the solar spectrum in a nation which has seen a change from diesel to 100% solar power. In Western Samoa, on the island on Ta’u we can get a snapshot of a life lived with solar energy. An $8 million solar powered microgrid project, which included 5,328 solar panels generating 1.410 megawatts of electricity now powers the homes and lives of up to 600 people (Lin, 2017). Even with such small numbers the switch from fossil fuels to solar power has been significant, saving around 11,000 gallons per year of diesel as well as the fuel taken for shipping (Lin, 2017). For nations such as Yemen, India, Bhutan and Samoa the emphasis is not yet on feeding back energy to the grid as often the energy produced by solar projects is shared by a community meaning that such discussions are not required. For developing nations solar power is all about leap frogging past dirty fossil fuels and into cleaner, greener and more affordable energy. Once past the difficulties associated with attaining the right level of funding it almost appears as though bureaucracy and red tape falls away and gives way to community needs and requirements, an attitude which much of the global north could learn from.
The Future of Solar Power
Solar power really can provide humanity with a brighter future and as corny as that may sound it is actually something we need to secure for our survival. As we continue burning fossil fuels, cutting down forests and destroying the natural world we are pulling back a proverbial sling shot and at some point in the not too distant future our planet is going to let go and we will go into free fall. The only way that we can stop the devastating consequences of this is to shift our energy usage away from fossil fuels. We must completely reject our historical energy production methods. Humanity is immensely lucky to have developed systems and technologies that reach beyond the wildest dreams of someone living even 100 years ago and today we must harness our creative capacity and look to the skies for our salvation. Like the Aztec civilisations of old who saw the sun as a god and a provider we must also learn to appreciate it in similar ways. Solar power ticks all the sustainability boxes with a list of benefits that include a reduction in CO2 emissions, stable energy and electricity prices, the creation of job opportunities and increased gender equality, reduced deforestation, and potentially equal access to energy across the globe; it is hard to doubt the advantages of adopting solar power. Though affordability of the equipment remains a concern and a hindrance for many, as prices drop and policies change moving forward this issue is expected to become less prominent. In a world that is crying out for reforms to the energy sector could solar power be one more building block that helps to create a future where we limit global warming and slow the climate crisis? The answer to this will be decided not just by people and communities who decide to install solar panels on their roofs but also by international organisations such as the EU, UN, The World Bank and The Asian Developement Bank who influence and set policy whilst also providing much needed funding for solar projects in developing countries. Solar power is crucial to our future and in this pivotal moment where climate activists are making final pleas and scientists are barely stopping short of begging for governments and businesses to listen and take action it is the responsibility of everyone on planet earth to make essential changes at this very moment.
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