u/JustLovelyStuff

"One of Keir Starmer's last acts in Govt is this: Laying legislation that will legalise 'plug-in solar' (aka balcony solar) panels in Britain

"It means plug-in solar panels do not (legally) have to be wired in by an electrician.

"The SI [statutory instrument] was laid before Parliament on 17 July, and comes into force 27 August 2026. So probably just about meeting the Govt's target of getting plug-in solar "this summer".

"It's a negative-procedure instrument so no debate is required unless its 'prayed' against (formally opposed in Commons/Lords)."

The Bath Bee, a great little Substack that covers local news without clickbait, is looking for supporters

I have no skin in the game here (apart from being a subscriber), so just sharing if you can help them out.

I find their weekly email v helpful and interesting and it would be great if they can keep going (and do more).

Banning batteries seems like a bit of an own goal...

Some interesting ideas in here. What do you reckon?

"Construction has started on a solar and battery energy storage project on New Zealand’s Stewart Island/Rakiura that is forecast to deliver a more resilient energy network, cut power prices, and slash the island’s diesel use by up to 75%."

"More than half of the clean energy projects in Britain’s 2030 connections pipeline have now received grid offers, in a major step for efforts to speed up the route from planning to power generation.

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"The National Energy System Operator said 58% of offers have now been issued to projects in the 2030 pipeline, covering 713 of 1,223 schemes.

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"The offers amount to 37GW of new electricity capacity across technologies including offshore wind, onshore wind, solar, battery storage, gas and hydro."

"Thanks to this bill, we will deliver the biggest reform to our railways in 30 years.

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"Where there is fragmentation, we will bring integration.

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"Where decisions used to be made for private profit, they will now be made for the public good.

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"And where passengers were forced to navigate multiple companies and unclear accountabilities, they will soon deal with one railway, one team, with one mission – to deliver better services for the travelling public"

"Some of the figures are truly mind-blowing. Global investment in the clean energy transition rose eight per cent last year to a record $2.3 trillion, while fossil fuel supply investment fell for the first time since the pandemic. New wind and solar installations jumped 17% to over 800GW, making the two technologies the “fastest-growing sources of electricity generation in history”, according to think tank Ember. Fossil fuel power generation has now peaked in every OECD country.

"The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts the global market for key clean energy technologies, such as solar panels, heat pumps, and electric vehicles (EVs), is set to grow from nearly $1.2 trillion today to around $2 trillion by 2035, surpassing the size of the global oil market. In terms of both its scale and its impact, the surge in demand for clean technologies is easily the equal of the AI boom, and yet it gets a fraction of the attention."