Figures from Ofgem for renewable energy technology installations in August confirm that solar PV is the main beneficiary of the Feed-in Tariff incentive scheme, accounting for about 97% of the total number of installations. The effectiveness of the scheme is easy to see from the figures which show 405 PV installations registered in April 2010 rocketing to 3,615 in August that year and to 11,370 in August 2011. It looks like a booming success and a demonstration to the world that Britain is a leader in renewable technology, but do the figures stack up?

Japan's upper chamber of parliament today approved a Feed-in Tariff scheme to promote the rapid development of the renewable energy market making it the latest member of the FIT club. Japan is already no slouch in the renewable energy world but the introduction of this expensive incentive method indicates a radical change of policy away from nuclear.

It should be Texas rather than California, Texas the home of everything super-sized: cowboy hats, cars, egos, paunches; but as Texas is dedicated to oil, California carries the baton of solar energy super-sizing.

It really is a win, win offer: Beechdale Energy is now offering to install solar panels on privately-owned roofs, residential and commercial, completely free of charge. Owners of roofs enter into a 25-year leasing arrangement allowing the company to install and maintain the system and in return they can use all the electricity generated, free of charge. These 'rent-a-roof' schemes have received a lot of publicity recently but usually this has highlighted the problem of what happens if the property sold. Beechdale is the first local company to be offering a completely free rent-a-roof scheme and the first company nationally to offer a solution to the sale problem. The offer applies to Cambridge and a 50 mile radius around the city.

In the latest of Beechdale Energy's open days for residents of local villages, Thursday 8th September is the open day for Cambourne, just west of Cambridge. Beechdale Energy has a renewable energy showroom with a complete small-scale solar PV installation complete with wiring, inverter, generation meter and switchgear, showing exactly how a PV installation works.

August 1st saw the implementation of the Government's changes to the Feed-in Tariff structure for larger installations of solar PV panels. The changes came as the system was awash with a flood of planning permission applications for large-scale PV installations on farm land, said to run into several hundreds. The change slashed the Feed-in Tariff for the largest installations from 29.3p per kWh of output right back to 8.5p per kWh.

The Renewable Heat Incentive is (not quite) dead, long live the Renewable Heat Premium Payment. Yes, a variation on 'the King is dead, long live the King', but in this case the Renewable Heat Incentive has just been locked up for a year and is expected to reappear, fit and healthy, in 2012. Both schemes are Government-promoted initiatives to incentivise the public take-up of renewable energy technologies and they sit alongside the Feed-in Tariff which promotes solar PV panels.