ASA bans our strapline: “Zero Carbon Solar”. Dark winter solstice reflections on a week of hell. Solar news: 21 Dec 2011. To sum up, last week, on 14 December 2011, our 12 year old strapline “Zero Carbon Solar” was condemned by the UK Advertising Standards Authority as a “misleading environmental claim”. Rather than sunshine, over [...]

Goodbye, Zero Carbon Solar! 1999-2011. RIP aged 12. ASA decision A11-169818 responding to complaints made by ONE non-commercially linked householder. Breathe deeply and exhale. I invite you to read to the end of this (while transferring CO2 from your blood, into your alveoli and then into the atmosphere). Although, as constant innovators, we are very [...]

Don’t say “Zero Carbon Solar” (Nor Zero Carbon Anything-else, or the ASA will damn you!) Solar News 14 December 2011: Strapline 1: Gorillas holding machine guns are not all that funny. Strapline 2: Will John Prescott’s famous “Zero Carbon Homes” aspiration also be gunned down? Solar innovator, Barry Johnston, Managing Director of Solar Twin Ltd [...]

Zero Carbon Solar? Is the ASA in the slow lane / the dark / the lodge? Choose your un-illuminated (sic) metaphor. Solar Zero Carbon Background. Even though, after the REAL Code cravenly failed to do so, UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) eventually succeeded in getting the Solar Trade Association’s Chairman, Howard Johns, and many other [...]

Watch out! The supposed 21p PV FIT subsidy is NOT set in stone… This is our comment on the status of the proposed 21p/kWh tariff for solar PV systems installed after 12 December 2011, based on some helpful membership documentation supplied by the Micropower Council. What are the main issues? Time and sums. UK Government [...]

Is yet another solar PV orders rush expected in Q1 2012? Here is a UK solar panel grants timeline for 2012… AGAGAGAHHHHHH (The Tarzan Yodel)! Today’s sketch map of UK’s fast-evolving solar subsidy jungle, and the possibility that DECC will (again) bungle in that jungle. A shedload more of solar restrictions / added value opportunities [...]

UK PV FIT CUTS ANNOUNCED 31 October 2011. solar panels subsidy / support breaking news: Solar FIT CUTS NEWS Update Friday 4 November 2011. Here is the latest STA position on the FIT cuts, points with which we fully agree.   The 12th December FIt cuts implementation date is unfair – and must be delayed [...]

Solar News Black Comedy Update: 21 October 2011. The STA Chairman, “Honest Cowboy” Howard Johns, has just told us that the Solar Trade Association “refuses to accede to any of these demands”, in other words the requests which are set out below.  And, of course, that we, rather than the STA, are bringing the industry [...]

British Solar Trade Association [STA] and its unlawful Solar Thermal boycott of Solar Twin Ltd’s Innovative Solar Water Heating disruptive technology, Solartwin, which has been blocked, blackballed & case-referred to the Office of Fair Trading [OFT], UK’s consumer & competition regulator, is now asked to clean up its faces & governance at its AGM.    [...]

The OFT Off Grid Energy Market Study reports are here. Here are some key summary phrases [With ours in square brackets]. Clearly the British solar panels industry did not get a clean bill of health: From Press Release. There were also some concerns surrounding the potential for mis-selling of solar panels. [Glad that this was [...]

Solar news:  14 October 2011: DECC strenuously denies rumours that the FIT for PV’s may face an imminent fast track review & may be cut to as low as 9p across the board. The UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change today denied rumours that a fast track review of its generous and popular Feed [...]

Here comes the sun: a field trial of solar water heating systems by the Energy Saving Trust. Download the EST Solar Thermal Field Trials “Here Comes The Sun” report here. Solar industry news, comment and analysis by Solartwin. There are plenty of good things about this new report as well as some concerns. But first, [...]

NEWS UPDATE: got a tweet from Greg Barker Energy Minister saying November is what he plans for a relaunch.   The REA have just received the following communication from DECC. As you will be aware, DECC was planning to launch the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) for non-domestic generators on 30 September 2011. State Aid approval [...]

Discount solar PV prices: Solar UK nationwide. Take a look at our NEW lower solar panel prices and solar PV payback table now. We fit great value solar installations across Great Britain. Call us NOW for a free nonintrusive solar PV phone quote on 01244 403 407. 4 kWp solar PV installations bargains at £2000 [...]

Note: if we say zero carbon solar in an unqualified way we generally mean zero carbon operation. Not zero carbon to manufacture: that would be bonkers! Solar news: 26 September 2011 Solartwin STOP PERFORMANCE FRAUD. Millions of £ probably already disbursed. RHI MUST NOT FUND NON-EXISTENT energy benefits. http://www.solartwin.com/stop-performance-fraud-solartwins-response-to-the-non-domestic-rhi-consultation 14 minutes ago Solartwin Our formal [...]

Solar news 22 September 2011: Will UK’s old solar MCS regulations be changed soon? Some influential members of the “traditionally-built” old solar-heating lunch-club have put the brakes on the UK solar thermal market for over a decade, to the detriment: of free speech (I have been ordered by solar industry top brass to shut op [...]

Heat Energy, DECC RHI, RHPP – UK renewable heating incentive scheme – green energy subsidy news 19 September 2011. Copy of correspondence to DECC/RHI and MCS [with my comments in brackets] Dear Sirs, I would like to remind you of some very slow progress in MCS and RHI and to ask whether there are industry [...]

Solar industry news 31 August 2011: Today, Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority added three more high profle solar company names to its growing list of informally resolved cases. The latest players to resolve matters informally with the ASA are Bosch Thermotechnology Ltd, trading as Worcester Bosch Group The Energy Initiative Ltd Lead Generator (Kent) Limited, trading [...]

Industry welcomes the green roadmap with reservations. The Environmental Industries Commission (EIC) has welcomed the publication of the Government’s new green economy roadmap – “Enabling the Transition to a Green Economy” – but is concerned that there is a lack of policy detail to create a platform for investor confidence. Commenting on the roadmap’s publication [...]

News 26 July 2011. [Note: we seem to be asking for a lot, but the fact is that some really big, really stupid corrosions are happening, due to the combined nuclear and heat pump lobby virtually hijacking the RHI.] Response from Solar Twin Ltd to the RHI guidance consultation. We have three requests to make. [...]

DECC UK gives money off green energy heaters “Getting money off an eco heater will not just cut carbon emissions, it will also help create a market in developing, selling and installing kit like solar thermal panels or heat pumps.” (Energy and Climate Change Minister, Greg Barker) DECC UK Press Release: PN11/064 21 July 2011 Up to [...]

The Guardian newspaper has named Solartwin as a best buy solar water heating company! “We are all delighted with this great news.” Commented Barry Johnston, Managing Director of Solar Twin Ltd.

Note: if we say zero carbon solar in an unqualified way we generally mean zero carbon operation. Not zero carbon to manufacture: that would be bonkers! Barry Johnston @Solartwin Chester, Cheshire, England, UK Renewable energy news policy market analysis UK RoI. Nationwide solar PV & thermal installer. Developer: innovative PV pumped zero carbon solar water [...]

Solar news update on UK solar PV and solar thermal: politics, consumer studies and grants. Tuesday 28 June 2011. We aim to keep you up to date with newsy items of great navel-gazing significance in the solar microcosm. Feel free to pass them on to people whom you know, who might enjoy reading them! 1/ [...]

Which? Magazine, organ of the Consmers’ Association condemn in-your-home solar PV sellers in new report: 24 June 2011. Solar PV companies use dodgy sales tactics and give poor advice to consumers wanting to buy solar PV (photovoltaic) panels, says Which? Magazine in a new hard-hitting article. In an undercover sting operation, Which? found three quarters [...]

Solar water heating competition update newflash: Good news 1. We have just heard today that we are once again, after years of exclusion, full members of the Solar Trade Association. Also that we have been invited to help to shape the future of a new and more inclusive UK solar trade body. We probably have [...]

Solar PV costs-benefits analysis. Solartwin home Solar Electricity installations give around 8-10% return on capital / 4-6% return on investment over 25 years. So far, the UK Government has spared Home Solar Electric Installations from savage solar cuts elsewhere. The money point is that the day when your Solartwin installation takes place, this date then [...]

Congratulations to all the award winners of the British Renewable Energy Awards 2011! Pioneer: Beech Properties Community: Isle of Eigg Region: The Welsh Assembly Government Installer: EvoEnergy Innovator: Didcot Biomethane Project Team Project Developer: Ecotricity / Fen Farm Solar Park Company: Solarsense Champion: Peter Edwards Wind Electric Godfrey Bevan. From all of us at Solar [...]

Solar thermal panels, solar heating, solar power, RHI, RHIP, RHIPP, Scotland news. RHI and RHPP are now OK for Scotland! Scottish householders and business will be delighted to hear that the Renewable Heat Incentive (which is already being rolled out for England and Wales) will be extended to Scotland as well. Scotland’s Energy Minister, Fergus [...]

Solar PV electric news: buy now or miss out for ever on over-generous subsidies. Midsummer is coming, with its high peak sunlight levels, but that is not the only reason why solar is a great idea – right now. There is some much more pressing urgency. Cuts. It’s a matter of “use it or lose [...]