Homeowner Blog

This year may be remembered as the moment when the effects of climate change hit home. We’ve seen a summer of deadly wildfires, floods and heat domes across the globe. The IPCC published a landmark report on climate science, concluding it is ‘unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land’, causing ‘widespread and rapid changes’ to the environment. In November, world leaders will descend on Glasgow for COP26 to discuss how they can try to limit global heating and its impacts.

It’s easy to feel helpless in the face of the challenge to protect Earth’s habitable climate, but we’re determined to do all we can to empower individuals to take action where they can. With that in mind, we’re delighted to announce that we will be returning this month to Reading Climate Festival.

It will come as no surprise to hear that we are passionate about renewable energy. Our mission here at Spirit Energy has always been to support every building in becoming its own sustainable micro power station, generating and utilising as much of its own clean energy on site as possible.

As we move towards a net zero carbon society, it’s essential that we build zero carbon homes. But what exactly does this mean? And what is the best way to incorporate renewable technologies when building your new house?

This time last year we were celebrating Spirit’s 10th birthday. Little did we know how soon everything would change.

Despite the extraordinary challenges of 2020, we are pleased to report that Spirit is still going strong and our team is as dedicated as ever to making our world a cleaner, greener, more sustainable place to live.

As the UK settles in for another lockdown, we want to take the opportunity to reassure you about all the measures we’ve taken at Spirit so we can continue the drive to sustainable energy during this challenging time.

We’d like to reassure you that we are determined to serve our customers and continue driving the switch to renewable energy during the COVID-19 outbreak.

We are following government advice to keep our staff and customers safe, and will update you on any changes to our operations.

Today is a big day at Spirit Energy.

It’s our 10th anniversary.

Most importantly we are celebrating with a big cake, but we have also taken time to review some of the milestones reached within the last 10 years, both at Spirit and within the wider community, focusing on cleaner air, climate change mitigation and sustainable fuel supply.

Now that Christmas is less than a week away and the new year is just around the corner, it only seems right to reflect on what has been quite an eventful year for the solar and renewables industry.

A few weeks ago we launched a Solar PV Calculator and wrote a blog about solar in a post subsidy world.

However, for many people looking at renewables, solar is only one part of the story. Increasingly, solar goes hand-in-hand with battery storage. And many of us are at least wondering whether we should switch to an electric car.

Finally, in 2019 we expect to see a proliferation of ‘time-of-use’ electricity tariffs from the utility companies, all aimed at transforming electricity demand and supply.

To handle all of this, we’ve been busy developing the all-singing-and-dancing calculator which looks at the package of solar, battery storage, electric car usage and choice of tariff. And of course if you are building your dream home, you'll probably be wanting a heat pump...

As you may know, the Feed-in Tariff solar subsidy scheme ends in March 2019.

After that, solar PV (solar electricity) has to stand on its own two feet.

The question is, can solar PV stand on its own two feet? 

And more to the point, if you can’t make the March 2019 installation deadline, should you still consider solar for your own property?

Equally if you want to extend your system (which wouldn’t qualify for subsidy even if you were to extend before March 2019), should you do so?

To help you work that out, we’ve launched a brand new Solar PV Calculator...