I have attached a winter photo taken at Whitelee Windfarm in Eaglesham near Glasgow is the largest onshore windfarm in the UK and produces enough electricity to power 350,000 homes. There is a visitor centre which offers tours, and the site is ideal for walking and cycling. 

Thirteen years ago, we didn’t have suitable roof space for solar PV, so constructed this “pergola” for our panels (10m l, 1.5m w, 1.8m h).  This made room for ten 2.4kWp panels.  Armoured cable running under a path takes the generation to our home. The pergola faces due south but does have occasional shading from neighbour’s trees.   On average they have generated 1,800kWh annually.  I estimate we use about 600kWh directly exporting the remaining 1,200kWh.  We buy about 1,400kWh from Ecotricity.  

We also placed two solar thermal panels on our rear roof which faces slightly north of west.  Although this is not optimal, they usually provide all the hot water we require for showers, dish washing, shaving, hand washing etc. between May and early September. We are hoping to replace our Worcester Green Skies very efficient gas boiler with a heat pump.  I believe, however, that, if we are to take up on a government grant, we will not be able to add the water heated by these panels to our tank.  

Here are some of my solar panels in Bisham Gardens – Great use for the paintbrush!

A biomass energy facility near Nottingham.  The green dome is the roof of an anaerobic digester, in which agricultural waste is fermented to produce methane gas (biogas) and a liquid digestate.  The gas is used in a gas engine which turns a generator to produce electricity: the silver structures are the intake and exhaust hoods for the engines, which are inside soundproof enclosures.  The digestate is used as a fertiliser, which reduces the need to use artificial compounds.  Residual heat from the engines is used to dry grain in a nearby grain store.

At the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in Wales, members of the group were able to see and learn about a wide range of alternative technologies.  This is the water balanced funicular railway, linking 2 parts of the site; it uses a tank of water on the carriage which is filled with water.  When the top one goes down, it pulls up the bottom carriage. Ad infinitum!  It is one of the steepest railways in the world and uses no electricity - and no fossil fuels.

A Great Place for the Chicken COOP in the garden – underneath the solar panel structure.