Solarcentury's Engineering Team Hits The London Streets

Solarcentury's engineering team recently toured London to marvel at the engineering all around us that we rarely think about, and to make a stand to #SaveOurSolar to government ministers outside the Houses of Parliament.

The team kicked off the day with a visit to the belfry of Elizabeth Tower to watch and hear Big Ben ring at 10am. The bell is one of the largest in the world and the clock mechanism is still accurate to within one second, as it was when it was first installed over 150 years ago.

In 1912, Parliament took the decision to remove the gas fired lights from behind the clock faces of Big Ben and replace them with cleaner and more efficient electrical lighting. Nowadays, the clock face is lit up with energy efficient high pressure lights and these are likely to be replaced with LED lighting. Eventually, I hope to look up at Big Ben illuminated using the power of the sun, with an energy system built by Solarcentury! We have already installed solar on two London landmarks - and that's just the beginning of what's possible given advances in solar materials and efficiency.

We then took our message to Downing Street where upon arrival we were welcomed by friendly police officers who let us stand in front of the gates. We had to move when a car wanted to exit, and whilst the team hoped it would be a senior minister, our hopes were dashed when we realised it was just a visiting dignitary.

We explained to some curious passersby about #SaveOurSolar, and they all agreed that we should be looking at more renewable sources of energy.

We then headed to DECC's offices where we were asked politely to move on, as we were a fire hazard! The previous "˜clean graffiti' put down by 10:10 as part of the Keep FiTs campaign had recently been jet washed, so we took the opportunity to proudly stand on one of the cleanest areas of pavement in London, to promote the #SaveOurSolar and Keep FITs campaigns.

At Solarcentury we have a young and talented engineering team that has worked hard to establish Solarcentury as a world-leading solar company.

#SaveOurSolar calls for a fair and sensible framework that will allow the solar industry to regain investor confidence and continued economic expansion underpinned by clean energy power plants.

Show your support by writing to your MP to ask them to #SaveOurSolar.