United Kingdom

Scientists in the United Kingdom have developed a new web-inspired concept for floating PV farms, modeled after spider webs. The system is said to be particularly suitable for spiral and radial configurations, as well as for deployment between offshore wind farms.

The Australian government has aunched the second round of its Hydrogen Headstart program to provide revenue support for large-scale renewable hydrogen projects, while the UK government is seeking industry input on rules for hydrogen-to-power participation in its capacity market.

State-owned Great British Energy expands solar investment program to multiple military sites, plus additional school and National Health Service (NHS) properties. GBP 75 million ($100 million) in new funding brings total expanded solar rollout scheme to GBP 255 million, following GBP 180 million hospital and school solar investment announced in March 2025.

An Indian-British research team has developed a building-integrated linear concentrating PV facade by sandwiching an asymmetric compound parabolic concentrator, PERC cells, and encapsulation layers between two sheets of glass. The system was tested under both indoor and outdoor conditions and its payback period was found to be of up to 11 years.

Solar & Storage Live UK 2025 took place over three days from September 23 to 25 at the NEC venue in the outskirts of Birmingham, the UK’s second largest city. pv magazine spoke to hundreds of industry players keen to optimize existing solar and storage capacity and be at the forefront of the nationwide rooftop PV expansion.

A questionnaire and focus group study of households in the UK city of Bristol found residents have a lack of access to technical and ‘common sense’ information on the transition to heat pumps. Able-to-pay residents became more willing to invest as they learned about the technology.

UK-based Autonaut offers wave-propelled and solar PV-powered drones capable of data collection at sea for several months at a time.

The new heat pump systems use propane as the refrigerant and can provide hot water at a temperature of up to 75 C, according to the UK-based manufacturer. 

A paper by King’s College London scientists suggests that space-based solar panels (SBSP) could cut Europe’s land-based renewable energy needs by up to 80%, including reducing battery energy storage usage by more than 70%. The authors are now in contact with leading companies such as Space Solar.

Eelpower Ltd. joins consortium of public and private sector investors to launch new battery energy storage system (BESS) developer – Eelpower Energy. The developer is targeting final investment decisions on up to 1 GWh of capacity by the end of 2025.