Solar ... In the news

QrizB

Euronews have an article on solar fences:

https://www.euronews.com/2026/06/21/europeans-are-making-the-most-of-cheap-solar-panels-by-creating-green-garden-fences

A little light on technical detail but it's good to see this in the mainstream press!

QrizB

Here's a blog post regarding Pakistan's quiet solar revolution. We've mentioned it a couple of times before but the numbers are still growing.

https://janrosenow.substack.com/p/pakistan-the-solar-revolution-nobody

Pakistan imported more Chinese solar panels than any other country on earth in 2025 (except for the Netherlands through the port of Rotterdam but destined for across the EU). No subsidy programme drove it. No national rooftop scheme. No feed-in tariff. People just did it.

We are used to energy transitions that happen because governments engineer them, with incentives and mandates and targets. Pakistan’s solar boom is the opposite. It is probably the fastest deployments of distributed solar anywhere in the world, and it happened largely in spite of the state rather than because of it. But Pakistan is also a cautionary tale for what happens in an unmanaged transition and by no means is this a blueprint for other countries to follow. But it shows just how rapidly solar can be deployed around the world.

More at the link.

Martyn1981

Hopefully this idea will help people to get PV with little to no initial cost. Backed by low or interest free loans. But as always, the devil will be in the detail when we see what actually emerges (or doesn't).

Also nice to see estimates of PV suitability for UK homes now at 50%+. I seem to recall ~20% when first touted in 2010.

Low-cost loans for solar panels could save households hundreds on bills – thinktanks

Millions of UK households could save hundreds of pounds a year on their energy bills if the government were to approve low-cost loans for solar panel installation, research has found.

Solar panels with batteries are one of the cheapest ways to generate electricity and reduce energy bills, but with an upfront cost of about £6,000 they are still beyond the reach of most cash-strapped UK households while other countries forge ahead with installation.

But if the Bank of England were to back a system of low-interest borrowing, they could be installed on about 8m homes at no direct cost to the government. Households would save about £250 a year on average, according to the thinktanks New Economics Foundation and the Finance Innovation Lab.

The scheme would work by allowing the Bank of England to offer commercial banks access to its funds at low or no interest, on condition that they used the facilities to provide loans to households for solar installations. The loans would be available to households at about 2% interest, giving the high-street banks an incentive to take part and covering the costs of the scheme.

Other countries have forged ahead: close to a third of households in Pakistan now use solar systems, mainly DIY installations; and rooftop solar in the Philippines has doubled. Modern panels can generate power even on overcast days in cloudy countries such as the UK, and Griffiths quoted estimates that about two-thirds of UK homes could benefit: at least half are “highly suitable” for panels, and a further 17% have east- or west-facing roofs where installations can still work well.

Martyn1981

'Floatovoltaics' able to cope with significant waves now, though not for the UK I suspect - the North Sea would laugh at 3.5m waves. But for large lakes perhaps.

Floating Solar PV … To Survive 3.5 Meter Waves

Floating solar PV power has become more and more popular. It was quite niche for several years, but it is getting more or less “mainstream.” As it has gotten bigger and bigger, innovative designs for certain climates and geographies have been getting developed.

I recently wrote about floating solar PV designed for cold climates. Now we have news of floating solar PV designed for extreme waves. Funny enough, like the vertical solar PV I just wrote about, the company behind this specialized floating solar PV design comes from Norway.

“Floating solar has traditionally been limited to calm and sheltered waters, constraining the market’s growth potential. By enabling deployment in more challenging environments, BRIZO supports the development of an emerging floating solar market in nearshore and wave-prone inland water bodies, helping to unlock new areas for renewable energy generation.”