The sun provides an abundant source of clean, renewable energy. This can be converted into electricity using solar photovoltaic panels, usually referred to as ‘solar PV’. Electricity generated by a domestic solar PV system can be used to power your home, leading to savings on your electricity bills.
Solar PV systems can be combined with battery storage, allowing you to store surplus energy generated by the panels and use it when you need it (eg. in the evening). Although domestic battery storage is currently quite expensive, the technology is developing rapidly, and costs are falling. If you have an electric vehicle excess electricity could also be used to charge it.
Air source heat pumps can provide low-cost space heating for well insulated homes that have well managed ventilation. Air source heat pumps are a kind of renewable energy technology that take the warmth from the air outside even in freezing temperatures and use it to heat the home. You can get other heat pumps that do the same thing using the warmth in the ground and in water, but air source heat pumps are suitable for a wider range of properties. Because the air (or ground, or water) is heated by the sun, the energy that heat pumps produce is still classed as ‘renewable’, even though the pump itself is powered by electricity which may or may not have a renewable source.
