Solar Power

One of the reasons solar and other sources of renewable power have not made much headway in the United States has been our historically low power prices. The United States covers an enormous area, and in that land mass reside some of the world's largest natural resource reserves.

Not so for the United Kingdom. With an area of roughly 94,500 square miles versus the United States at 3,719,000 square miles, the UK is only about one-third the size of the US. England and its environs have some fossil fuel reserves, but they are smaller and harder to withdraw.

Because of these and other factors, electricity in the UK costs much more than in the United States. US power costs an average of just over $9.53 per kilowatt hour, and in the United Kingdom it's more like $13.00 per kilowatt hour. While solar power is still more expensive that electricity generated from fossil fuels in both locations, it's much closer to the norm in the UK.

Germany, only a few hundred miles away from the UK, has been a world leader in encouraging research and production of solar energy. Now Spain is joining in, with its Power Tower rising up outside of Seville. Obviously, people in the UK are very aware of these achievements and are looking toward solar as a possible source of renewable energy in their own country.

In 2005 Parliament funded more than a million pounds toward a variety of solar projects. Included are school and office buildings around London, solar PV modules in Regent Street, a 40-acre development in Hull, an arts center in northern Ireland, and a PV array on the Isle of Eigg in Scotland.

In addition, the government awards solar power grants to citizens to help offset the cost of installation of renewable energy systems, including solar. Both solar PV power generation and solar thermal are covered by the grants. Especially for those considering new construction, an extremely energy efficient home can be built with much of the cost of renewable energy covered by the government.

Quite a bit of the technology that goes into creating solar power is shared. Although for-profit companies like British Petroleum (BP) fund much research and development, many other non-profit and governmental agencies are contributing to the effort. Scientists and engineers share solar technology information, advancing the effort across borders.

Solar power generation is currently the fastest-growing energy technology in the world. It is actively supported by Parliament, and currently there are over 80,000 solar water heating systems and several thousand PV installations in the UK. More are added each year.

With energy prices already much higher than in the United States and expected to rise, the benefits of investing now in renewable energy for the future is abundantly clear.

The UK also has some very densely-populated cities, and the clean-air benefits from solar electricity generation will pay off for generations to come. Anyone who has seen the centuries of pollution in cities like London and Edinburgh will quickly realize that the ancillary benefits to solar power may well be worth their weight in gold. Or oil.