UK receives record energy in the UK on Thursday

Solar power on Thursday, 2 July, supplied 16 per cent of the UK's electricity, according to industry estimates.

An increase in the amount of solar panels and abundant sunshine meant that solar arrays from large farms to home roof panels yesterday helped to increase their energy contribution to meet the country's energy needs to what was thought to be a record level.

According to the most recent official figures over 40,000 Scottish homes had photovoltaic solar systems installed, with a similar number in Wales, but over 500,000 in England.

However, even with 10 per cent of the capacity, homes in parts of Scotland were the top producers of solar power across the country in the past few days.

According to a report from the renewable website WeatherEnergy solar-powered households in Inverness, Wick and the Aberdeen region would have produced massive surpluses of energy due to the sunny conditions on Thursday.

Homes in Inverness were able to generate 158 per cent of the electricity needs of an average household, which compared with the top spot south of the border, in Falmouth, with 124 per cent.

According to commentators, with the rapid advances in the technology it was possible to take advantage of this power on a large scale.

The UK now boasts of 709,000 solar installations ranging from large solar farms to home roof panels.

Solar power now generates up to 7 per cent of the power needs of a country as energy-thirsty as Germany, which was hardly a nation that enjoyed an abundance of sunshine.

The potential of solar energy to transform lives in the most impoverished continent in the world, Africa, which enjoyed massive amounts of sunshine could only be imagined.

Even amid numerous threats to the global environment, the success of solar provided some welcome good news and hope, according to commentators.