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Solar Independence Day Arrives This Friday And Saturday
Posted on July 1, 2015

his Friday and Saturday, locations throughout England and Scotland will be opening their doors to the public to celebrate solar energy and showcase its potential.

Ahead of the day, Paul Barwell, CEO of the Solar Trade Association said, “Solar Independence Day will show how versatile this technology is. We’ve got everything from a housing estate in Northumberland to a stately home in Aberdeenshire, a community solar farm in Hampshire to a waste facility in Berkshire, all generating clean, green home-grown electricity.”

It is estimated that the UK now has almost 8GW of solar PV, across homes, offices, schools, warehouses and in solar farms. That’s enough to power the equivalent of 2.4million homes securing 30,000 jobs in the sector and its supply chain.

The biggest event will be taking place in Ashington, Northumberland, where almost 400 homes have had solar installed on their roofs. Schools are also involved, with a group of Brighton schoolchildren set to visit a solar farm in West Sussex. And on a solar farm in Worcestershire guests will be treated to ‘sunny honey’ on toast, made by the bees on that very solar farm.

The theme of the event follows the Solar Trade Association’s publication just a few weeks ago of its ‘Solar Independence Plan for Britain’. Mr Barwell continued, “Our Solar Independence Plan sets out how the new government can double the amount of solar and get solar as cheap as fossil fuel electricity by 2020, for a very modest amount of extra funds.”

In addition to the open days across the country, MPs will be visiting solar homes in their constituencies on the day and a ‘Build your own solar charger’ workshop is being held in Bristol for the Bristol Drugs Project, a charity working with people recovering from alcohol and drugs use.