Essays on solar, land, and money.
The longer arguments behind what we build. Written slowly, published rarely, meant to be read in full.
What happens to a home battery at the end of its life?
Extend first, recycle second, landfill never. Tesla's published end-of-life policy, and what to ask before you buy any battery.
Solar on an east-west facing roof
Ten to twenty per cent less per panel, twice the roof to use, and output across the whole working day. The plain answer for a building that doesn't face south.
The best-defended solar site in Britain is behind an airport fence
Mown grass, kilometres of perimeter and a large continuous load next door. What an airport microgrid actually looks like.
Use them where you make your own electrons
Serve the businesses next door over private wire, then let containerised compute eat whatever the grid won't take.
The eclipse and the grid
A predictable dive in national solar, a kettle surge on the other side, and a free rehearsal for every ordinary evening.
Why 1% of the UK is all we need
We don't have a land problem. We have a coordination problem.
Fragmented Funding
The capital is already there. It's just scattered across six different desks.
Powering the Future: Community Bonds
What if a community could keep the returns on its own infrastructure?
Why Ground Screws are the Future of UK Commercial Solar Farms
Time is capital. Earth is an asset. Concrete is a liability.
Local Net Zero: the support already on the table
Hubs, Accelerators, Great British Energy, the Community Fund, what's on offer, and how to find the door.
Global Quality, Local Installation
Why we install Tesla, and what a four-Powerwall replacement says about backing customers for decades.
The Evolution of Work: From Watt to Joule
Joule gave the scientific 'why' to the practical 'how' Watt had already commercialized, and that's why your bill is in kWh.
Let There Be Light: York Minster and the cathedral as civic leader
184 panels, £20,000 saved in six months, and a signal from the institution that has watched the British landscape the longest.
Shade as a Resource: agrivoltaics for British vineyards
What a 2018 Oregon study tells us, and what it doesn't, about putting solar above vines.
SEG, PPAs and the rise of symmetric pricing
Three layers for selling solar back to the grid, and a fourth idea that aligns the home with the system operator.
Mini Rails vs Long Rails
The mounting structure is the second-largest source of embodied carbon in a solar system. Two short profiles or one long one, it matters.
Playing the DNO: how to fast-track a slow connection
You can't choose your Distribution Network Operator. You can choose how you submit, and that is usually the whole game.
Biodiversity Net Gain: the 10% that changes the maths
Statutory BNG is now the law for almost every piece of development in England. For solar, it is an opportunity hiding inside an obligation.
Reclaiming VAT on farm solar
Solar panels are plant and machinery. For most VAT-registered farms, that means the 20% input tax comes back, and capital allowances stack on top.
East-West arrays: the economics on constrained UK sites
Lower yield per panel, higher revenue per hectare. Why midday peaks are now a liability.
The hop garden that became a power station
977 kWp seven metres above a working hop garden. What Fraunhofer's HoPVen trial means for British growers, and what it doesn't yet prove.
Should you wait for better panels?
Cadmium telluride is real, cheap at gigawatt scale and not sold to you. The choice on a British roof is which silicon, and why we specify glass-glass.
The hill made of rubbish that pays rent
New Haven put 1,900 panels on a capped landfill. Britain has twenty thousand of these hills and no policy pointing at one of them.
Do you need planning permission for solar? A W5 postcode answers better than a rulebook
Most British houses can take panels without asking anyone. One street in Ealing shows the four exceptions that actually matter, and how to check your own address in an afternoon.
Solar is no longer one thing, and your land is the proof
A new international report says designing every solar system like a field array gives you the wrong numbers. Here is what that means if the field belongs to you.