Singing the same song for solar

The Good News -

Earlier this year, The Eco Experts interviewed Chris Hewett, Chief Executive of Solar Energy UK, and put to him questions regarding how the solar industry has changed over time, where it will be in the next decade and about the immediate challenges facing the new government to accelerate the race to renewables and net zero.

With a 25-year career in sustainability, Chris took on the role of Chief Executive at Solar Energy UK in January 2018. Solar Energy UK is an established trade association that represents the entire solar and energy storage value chain, and is funded largely by its membership of over 400+ businesses and associates working in solar.

One of the key quotes we took from the interview is one that fully reinforces our message here at the Green Voice Alliance, about the amount of misleading information out there and how we need to counter it with positive news…

‍“The incumbents will fan the dis-information. They’ll quite happily repeat tropes around renewable technology that don’t work, misleading at best, and sometimes lies out right. They also get picked up in parts of the media, there are net zero sceptic parts of the media and they will repeat the doubt, and downsides and very rarely publish the upsides, so it’s up to us as an industry, and all of our members, to try to counter that with positive news. People that want to see climate change tackled, will start to express themselves more vigorously. ” - Chris Hewett, Chief Executive of Solar Energy UK

Many of the false claims about solar energy being repeated include the following:

• Solar panels don't work in cloudy or cold climates.
• Solar panels generate too much waste and will overwhelm our landfills.
• Solar energy is worse for the climate than burning fossil fuels.
• Solar development is inherently harmful to biodiversity.
• Solar projects will reduce agricultural production, hurting farmers and rural communities.
• Solar energy is more expensive than fossil fuels and completely dependent on subsidies
• Solar energy is unreliable and requires 100% fossil fuel backup

…all of which are outdated misinformation, yet seem to be repeated time and time again. Alongside key experts such as Chris Hewett, we are fighting fiction with fact.

Watch the full interview video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmQSPgtuVaU