Countryside 'goes solar'

Article date : 14/05/2010

Britons living and working in the countryside are cashing in on a subsidiary scheme by investing in solar panels, it has been claimed.

According to the Times, solar farms are set to make a "guaranteed profit", despite the lack of sunshine, as the fields of England get even greener.

Indeed, research by PricewaterhouseCoopers has predicted that investment in solar power is likely to increase five-fold over the next year thanks to the Feed-In Tariff - where energy providers pay Britons for the clean power they generate using the panels.

In rural Britain, Ecotricity has plans to take advantage of this by building dozens of solar farms, an ambition that has become more economically viable due to the introduction of the initiative.

And Dale Vince, the company's founder, reassures people that the panels will not detract from the natural beauty of the countryside as they will be obscured by hedgerows.

"Solar panels and wind turbines complement each other well because in summer the winds are lighter but there is more sunlight, with the opposite in winter," he explained.

Elsewhere, a three-day competition is set to take place in the US where students will race solar-powered boats as part of the Metropolitan Water District's Solar Cup.

Written by Tony Harrison

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