NEWS I ROUNDUP


community views and to offer educational opportunities. The STA is organising a meeting for developers in the industry with major UK conservation groups to explore the potential for creative partnerships.


Major UK charities including RSPB and The National Trust have stressed to the STA the potential for solar to support their conservation objectives. Some conservation groups disagree that high grade land should always be avoided as solar farms can offer protection to exhausted soils or carbon saving peat land. The STA has sought to capture these nuances in its commitments [please see supportive quotes at point 5 below].


New poll shows British public are behind solar farms The ‘10 Commitments’ have been published alongside results of a YouGov poll commissioned by the STA which found that nearly seven times more people would rather have a solar farm


located near them than a gas fracking field when given four options to choose from. When asked to choose ONE local energy development as a preference to be cited nearby, by far the most popular choice was a solar farm at 40% of respondents. 25% chose a wind farm, 10% a nuclear power plant and just 6% shale gas fracking and boreholes.


When asked specifically about support for solar farms, two thirds of people (67%) said they supported either ‘good quality’ or ‘all’ solar farms. The level of public support rose to 71% when the STA’s ‘10 Commitments’ were described. Only 5% of people said they oppose all solar farms when good quality solar farms were described.


Dr Doug Parr, Chief Scientist at Greenpeace UK said: “For all the enthusiasm for fracking emanating from the upper echelons of the Coalition Government, the public would actually


prefer to be near decent renewable projects like solar power. Cameron and Osborne should start listening to what real people want from local energy rather than trying to turn English counties into their version of Dallas”.


The Commitments follow the Communities Department’s publication of guidance for local planners. The STA is working closely with the Department for Energy and Climate Change on sustainable land- use for solar farms and the National Solar Centre is currently working to develop comprehensive guidance.


Stressing the urgent need to act Paul Barwell said:


“Fossil fuels are running out, the climate is changing, UK carbon emissions are on the rise and the world population has doubled in only 50 years. We need alternative energy sources and we need them now.”


Sharp’s Wrexham plant improves global position IT APPEARS that the Wrexham based PV


manufacturing plant that now serves as Sharp Energy Solution’s European base has not only avoided recent cost cutting by the Japanese giant but is currently running at its near full capacity of 400 MW. Whilst competitors are closing doors due to over supply, falling prices and uncertainty stemming from legal disputes.


Peter Thiele, executive vice president at Sharp Energy Solutions Europe stated in a press release, ‘“We see continuous demand for photovoltaic modules in Europe. Our European factory, located in Wales, is operating at near maximum capacity, also supporting demand from Japan.


“The focus in Europe lies on the home installation market, with valuable support for installers in the residential segment. Our position as a global electronics company helped us to balance the impact of the PV market dynamics. As a result, our business has been


less affected by recent market volatility compared to competitors.”


Sharp set about restructuring its European operations a couple of years ago and at the time there was much conjecture that they would close up much of its European operations. The company has cut back or closed other operations around the world but it has always maintained that the Wrexham European


headquarters was integral to their global plans.


The company moved the focus for European operations to residential and this move seems to have paid off. Retrospectively it now appears prescient with the changing nature of European subsidies but at the time some commentators felt the Japanese giant had gotten in wrong.


Another key market that has been developing and ensuring increased output for Wrexham is the growing Japanese market. The Wales based plant is helping to meet demand in Sharp’s home territory.


Analysts expect the Japanese demand to continue to increase as the fallout from the Fukushima disaster continues to be felt.


With plans to diversify the Wrexham plant with LED and energy storage manufacturing the plant has increased its importance in the company’s global plans.


Issue III 2013 I www.solar-uk.net 9


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