Ed Miliband is helping to turn the country into a nation of ‘solar zealots’ and Josiah Mortimer is enthusiastically along for the ride
d Miliband is having a bit of a moment. On Tuesday, the Energy Secretary gave a speech with one overriding message: “Every solar panel we put up, every wind turbine we build, every heat pump we install, every EV on the road makes our country more secure.”
For all the drama of the Mandelson saga and every other scandal that has rocked Labour since entering power, the long-promised ‘chaos with Ed Miliband’ is looking pretty good.
Whenever I share anything about solar power, I am met with a volley of screenshots: people sharing pictures of their low energy costs, and how little they’re importing from the grid. Despite everything going on in the world, their energy supply is, well, insulated.
For a while I was merely jealous that their homes are powered by the sun. Now I’ve joined the growing band of solar zealots.
Modern Eco-Friendly Home with Solar Panels (Image: D. Goug/Pexels)
On Monday, two roofers and an electrician arrived at 8:30am. By 1:30pm they were gone, and we had a house mostly fuelled by 13 PV panels on the roof. The system got to work immediately, in the background.
Like everyone else who gets solar panels installed, I am refreshing the accompanying app to see how many kWh the sun is providing, how much electricity we’re using, and how well the batteries are doing. I am, in short, a bore. But arguably with good reason.
On Tuesday, by 8:15am on a cloudy day in Somerset (in April), the sun was providing 70% more energy than we were using. So the battery was charging, ready for when the sun – or rather, clouds – dimmed in the evening. At 10am on Wednesday, solar was providing three times as much as was being used by two homeworkers.
Read more: Byline Times
