The Alternative Energy blog – green renewable alternative energy

Installing solar panels or a wind turbine can be a very good investment in the UK thanks to the feed in tariffs which pay householders a tax-free, index linked income for the energy they produce, providing over a 10% annual return. The tariffs pay up to 41.3p for every 1kWh of electricity produced using solar panels and an extra 3p per unit on top for any surplus electricity sold back to the grid. The average cost of home solar panel installation is £14,000. From this outlay, Ownenergy, Read more [...]

Panasonic is making a big move into the domestic solar panel business. Next month The Panasonic Group will launch in Japan its HIT(R) 215 Series* household solar power generation systems. Panasonic will be able to provide overall energy-saving systems for homes that will include rechargeable batteries, heating and air conditioning, security systems and Net-linking gadgets besides solar panels, which will all be hooked up to each other, he said. Homes will be able to save on utility costs Read more [...]

UK: From today British home owners can  earn money for the electricity solar PV produces under the feed-in tariff (also known as ‘clean energy cash-back’). The feed-in tariffs have been a long time coming but they have already increased demand and you can earn up to 8% return on investment. The tax free, index linked payments work on two levels: Generation tariff – depending on the size of panels, you are paid per kilowatt hour (kWh) of metered energy that panels generate, regardless Read more [...]

To heat your swimming pool, you can use a combination of solar pool collectors and thermal arrays. Thermal arrays can be used to heat water tanks,. These panels collect the sun's heat. The heat is then run through a piping system inside that's filled with water or antifreeze. Thermal pool covers or solar collector are made of special solar rings that can heat the pool's temperature five degrees. Solar collectors pump the pool water through a piping system like that of the thermal array. The Read more [...]

Great article in the UK's Guardian newspaper proving that even in rainy Britain home solar panels are a great investment. The Rewards of Solar Panels by Ashley Seager We live in an old terraced house on a cloudy, rainy island. Yet the solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on our roof, put up two years ago, are supplying around 90% of all the electricity used by my family. The initial cost is high, but don't let that put you off. Two key developments in recent months have made it worth considering Read more [...]