SOLAR THERMAL A beginner’s guide
We’re all familiar with the electricity-generating solar photovoltaic (PV) panels that started to adorn many roofs and farmers’ fields around the country from around 2008, when the introduction of the Feed-in Tariffs (FiTs) offered generous incentives for a generation of electricity. The FiTs put PV panels firmly on the renewable energy radar of many homeowners and investors. But there was a downside — when it came to specifying renewable technologies for the home, the incentives for PV skewed the decision-making process for homeowners. Many other renewable technologies simply could not compete. And one of the technologies that suffered the most was solar thermal. But now that the FiTs scheme is no more, do technologies like solar thermal have the opportunity to rise again?
What is solar thermal?
Solar panels convert sunlight into energy and can generate electricity (in the case of PV panels) or heat. In a nutshell, solar thermal panels create heat for use in domestic hot water. You could expect a PV panel to be around 20% efficient but a solar thermal panel is actually
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