PV solar panels for a crazy world




A PV solar panel gold rush

December 10th, 2013

Just like the supermarkets a week before Christmas, the PV solar panel (photovoltaic) installation industry is now going through a frenzy of demand.

We have seen this boom and bust scenario many times since the feed-in tariffs were initially introduced in 2011, with smaller spikes in demand and seen on a regular basis.

The side of the story you don’t hear is that the reason that PV solar incentives are being reduced is that the overall costs of an average photovoltaic installation have been reducing year to year.

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Are solar panels worth installing?

December 5th, 2013

I can think of only one downside to installing solar panels to your home and that is Santa cannot land on your roof for the next thirty years. This will make his Christmas eve harder and more dangerous than previous years.

Why Santa hates solar panels?

Why Santa hates solar panels?

Seriously though, I was gobsmacked when a friend asked me: “are solar panels worth installing?”, to which my reply was: “energy prices have risen every year, year on year, so why wouldn’t you?”

Now this may not be as condescending as it first seems, as my friend in question is intelligent, articulate and may I say very beautiful – however after 10 years of enthusiastically shouting from the hills about solar panels, the problem here lies with me because I see a very different world to the one most people see. Read the rest of this entry »


Will an electromagnetic pulse affect PV solar panels?

November 20th, 2013

In the ten years since I first fell in love with PV solar (photovoltaic) technology, I have been answering questions from pioneering adopters and thought I’d heard them all. That was until asked, “whether an electromagnetic pulse will affect my solar panels?

Sunspots produce X-flares.

Sunspots produce X-flares.

In celebration of Power My Home’s 10th birthday, I will answer this most unusual of questions.

Upon further enquiry, I discovered the nature of this question stemmed from worries about the current peak solar activity and more than usual solar flares which are currently being ejected out by the sun.

If one of these super-massive coronal mass ejections (CMEs) were to give the Earth a direct hit, then this would bath the planet and our solar panels with electromagnetic waves, but not pulses. Read the rest of this entry »


Fracking and what it means for Britain

November 13th, 2013

The Great British debate about wind turbines has always perplexed me because I think they are very elegant and in tune with our historical roots as depicted with the windmill clad landscapes of the acclaimed artist called Constable. However, fracking is the real enemy of the Great British countryside, and wind turbines may be the lesser of two evils.

Fracking in full-scale production.

Fracking in full-scale production.

The threat of black-outs by the big six energy suppliers has already begun. Threats of withdrawal of investment for the future of the nation’s energy and the political ‘vote-buying’ is leaving a bewildered British public scared for the future.

There has never been a point in history where investment in research, development and implementation of newer energy technologies not reflected in the consumer’s final energy costs – So why all the fuss now? Read the rest of this entry »


Is a Soviet Union style collapse imminent?

November 6th, 2013

A paradigm shift is occurring, and America’s wealth has gravitated East, and China’s once renowned poverty is also moving West. Being America’s 51st state has always been beneficial to Britain, but could this cosy relationship also become a curse?

A brighter road ahead with a quality solar installer.

A brighter road ahead with a quality solar installer.

America defaulting on its debts is just around the corner. America defaulting on its obligations will change life for every person in every state including the 51st.

The ball has again been kicked down the road until January by the successive administrations, with their debt ceiling debates, but the day of reckoning is coming.

What is happening here, is the American government is telling the rest of the world including China, “keep lending us more money, or we will default on our debts, and this is a road you don’t want to go down!” Read the rest of this entry »


The powerlessness of being in power

October 30th, 2013

The recent statements by David Cameron about reducing households energy bills by sacrificing alternative energy support reminded me of the tales of King Cnut who also attempted to change the course of an inevitable tide without success.

Politicians are powerless to prevent unaffordable energy costs.

Politicians are powerless to prevent unaffordable energy costs.

To be fair to the Norse King, who apparently was trying to prove to his people that he wasn’t all-powerful at all and that he was just an ordinary man.

Mr Cameron and George Osborne’s policies are still attempting to hold back this wave of inevitability while going against the tide, as the rest of the world is striving to become less dependent on fast depleting fossil fuels including oil-rich Saudi Arabia.

After waves of relentless hikes in the cost of powering and heating our homes, the level of arrogance must overshadow even Canute’s most defining moment. To use a Viking analogy, Mr Cameron is blaming the bail bucket for the ship taking on water. If the boat is sinking, then you don’t throw the bucket overboard, you increase the size and number available. Read the rest of this entry »