RENEWABLES
Solar and sustainability: what do UK consumers really think?
Simon Peat chief executive of Project Solar, one of the UK’s largest solar panel installers, weighs in on public sentiment around solar energy
T
he UK’s Net Zero Strategy, released in 2021, set out the policies required for the decarbonisation of all sectors of the UK economy to meet its fundamental target of Net Zero
by 2050.
The framework lays out that “a clean, reliable power system is the foundation of a productive Net Zero economy”. And this is correct. It’s a lofty target, but it’s entirely within reach. So, regardless of who has won the election and whatever their manifesto may contain, the continued commitment to the creation of this “clean, reliable power system” will underpin our journey towards Net Zero. At Project Solar, we’ve been working for
more than a decade in partnership with homeowners, businesses, and developers to promote the adoption of solar panels and to foster the growth of eco-friendly solutions to the climate crisis. To ensure our message is cutting through, our team conducts regular studies to better understand the UK public’s sentiment around solar energy and other forms of renewable energy. These surveys are invaluable. For example, our most recent survey from earlier this year highlighted that a huge seven in 10 of the UK public believe that it should be mandatory to install solar panels on new build properties. Developing energy-efficient new builds is a clear policy priority too, with the Government’s Future Homes Standard (FHS) set to “require new build homes to be future-proofed with low
20 BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER JULY 2024
carbon heating and world-leading levels of energy efficiency” from 2025 – though exactly what this will look like is yet to be determined. Andy Burnham’s commitment to build 10,000 new homes in the Greater Manchester region will likely see solar panels, and other energy- efficient measures, installed to comply with the FHS. Perhaps witnessing the proliferation of new properties with solar panels might catalyse the 42% of our survey respondents who agreed with the statement that they “planned to install solar panels within the next five years”. Google search data provides a nice insight into how serious this installation interest is too. From March 2020 to May 2024, there was a 300% increase in searches for the query “are solar panels worth it”, indicating a proactivity on behalf of the consumer to get to grips with the benefits of renewable energies. However, despite political will and general consumer sentiment nudging us closer and closer to our Net Zero target, there remain clear barriers to be broken down amongst consumers. As an indicator of what type of barriers currently exist, just over one in five of our survey respondents (21%) think – incorrectly - that solar power can only be generated in the summer months. To get to grips with how entrenched these misconceptions are (are they an anomaly, has belief increased or declined, how can we address this?), we regularly repeat survey questions to understand how sentiment changes over time.
For example, a survey of ours from 2021 highlighted that 21% of respondents agreed
Seven in 10 of the UK public believe that it should be mandatory to install solar panels on new build properties.
with the statement that “you can only store solar energy if you live in the desert”. When we asked this question again this year, this figure had surprisingly grown to 37% of respondents. Ian Rippin, CEO of the Microgeneration Certification Scheme, the standards organisation for small-scale renewable energy and heat in the UK, recently discussed the hurdles faced by those in the renewable energy sector in educating consumers about the upfront investment required for installation of solar panels, amongst other areas. If our sector is to lead on the shift towards implementing Net Zero, and the creation of a “clean, reliable power system”, then navigating consumer apprehension will underpin just how successful, and quick, this transition will be. We’re convincing millions of consumers to change engrained habits and to adopt renewable practices. Our survey evidence shows that while good intentions might be there, it’s another thing entirely to convert this into action.
Read the latest at:
www.bsee.co.uk
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