Contractor Blog

Once again we’re taking a look back at a year that’s been anything but ordinary. Changes have come thick and fast, in our daily lives, the renewables industry, environmental legislation and Spirit itself.

Read on for a roundup of all that’s happened in 2021...

This week sees the opening of COP26, the Covid-delayed climate conference where world leaders are supposed to agree plans to meet the Paris Agreement and limit global heating to between 1.5-2°C. Governments have been scrambling to come up with commitments and pledges in the run up to the Glasgow gathering, with ‘net zero’ the phrase du jour.

One such announcement is that the UK will run on carbon-free electricity by 2035. So we decided to dig a little deeper into the carbon intensity of electricity to see how it’s changing, and what the future of renewable energy holds.

We’re thrilled to announce some exciting Tesla news (and it’s not Elon Musk’s new robot). Spirit has won Tesla’s Performance Excellence Award!

This recognises our work installing hundreds of Powerwalls to the exacting standards that enable us to be a Tesla Certified Installer. Much to our delight, the company also highlighted the value of our informative, impartial content in educating people about renewables and energy storage.

Not many PV panels have yet reached their end of life, but this is likely to accelerate in the 2030s as early systems (particularly those installed during the FiT boom) begin to reach old age.

Some panels, however, do get damaged, malfunction or are replaced for newer modules, becoming complex electronic waste.

What happens to the modules next is vital to ensuring solar remains one of the most sustainable forms of energy. The good news is that work is underway to tackle the complexities of solar panel recycling...

The demand for lithium ion batteries is rocketing. They are used in everything from mobile phones and laptops to electric cars and Tesla Powerwalls.

Data source: Bloomberg.

Energy dense lithium batteries are proving an invaluable technology in fighting our dependence on fossil fuels. They can help to decarbonise transport and store renewable energy from solar and wind. That’s one of the reasons the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to the developers of the lithium ion battery.

But with a predicted 9,300GWh of Li-ion battery capacity by 2030, what will happen to all these devices at the end of their useful lifespan?