Solar panels, widely considered an eyesore on British homes – not to mention a great place for pigeons to nest – are set to get a major makeover, say design experts.
Middle-class homeowners who’ve traditionally shied away from installing the unsightly black panels – the ‘ugly ducklings of renewable energy’ – could soon find themselves wooed by designs so sleek they might even push up property value.
Period-style sash glass windows that soak up the sun’s rays, invisible roof tile formats and even ‘spray-on’ solar panels are all on the horizon as energy technology appeals to a more design-led consumer.
Josh Raffo, spokesman for Thrift Energy, a solar energy company based in the North East, says solar panels can be a tough sell but the mindset is already changing, led by improved designs.
‘Thirty years ago people worried double glazing would ruin the look of a Victorian terrace. Now no one gives it a second thought. Solar is on exactly the same trajectory, and the pace of design innovation means we’ll get there much faster.
‘The day is coming where a prospective buyer looks at a home without solar and asks why it hasn’t been upgraded, rather than the other way around.’
In the meantime, many property owners will have to make do with the bulky plug-in panels that Energy Secretary Ed Miliband announced last month will soon be available from retailers such as Lidl and Amazon at around £400.
Not there yet: Solar panels can help save money on electricity bills…but there’s little about the way they currently look to endear them to homeowners
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband last month announced plug-in solar panels, which cost around £400, will be sold in supermarkets and on Amazon in a bid to help people cut bills
In the Hertfordshire hamlet of Potters Crouch, the idea of a solar farm has gone down like a lead balllon. Locals Andy and Gilly Morris (pictured) say they fear their ‘beautiful countryside view’ will become ‘absolutely and completely surrounded’ by solar panels
The planned introduction of a solar farm with ‘up to 100,000 panels’ would ruin Potters Crouch as a ‘sanctuary of greenery’, say residents
Labour is pushing the roll-out of the panels, which are plugged into a home’s mains electricity system using a standard plug, meaning householders will be able to generate their own electricity to help power their homes.
While the eco-friendly screens look set to become increasingly mainstream, the passions of those rallying against their installation, particularly in rural areas, also shows no signs of abating.
In the pretty North Yorkshire village of Low Bentham last week, permission to install 20 solar panels on a 17th-century, Grade II-listed farmhouse received short shrift from planning officials, who raised concerns about how they might disturb the heritage of both the building itself and those around it.
And in the 600-year-old Hertfordshire hamlet of Potters Crouch last month, residents decried the planned introduction of a solar farm with ‘up to 100,000 panels’, saying their ‘sanctuary of greenery’ a mile from the Roman Britain city of Verulamium, now St Albans, would be ‘completely wrecked’.
Can solar power ever be an option for the country’s centuries-old properties without compromising their charm?
Raffo says it is increasingly possible to marry a heritage building with modern technology and it not end up looking like a blight on the landscape.
‘This is the question we get asked more than almost any other in our part of the world, the North East is full of beautiful older stone and brick properties, traditional slate roofs, conservation villages.
‘The answer, genuinely, is yes, you can make a period property more eco-friendly without touching its soul. It does require expertise and the right approach.
Nordic–inspired design company Roofit.Solar are among the companies introducing sleeker, more sophisticated versions of the panels – including on this Herefordshire home, where the panels are part of the roof
‘Britain has some of the oldest housing stock in Europe. Ed Miliband and the government have been absolutely clear that decarbonising our homes is a national priority, not a lifestyle choice.
‘When that’s your forever home, a Georgian terrace, a Victorian stone cottage, a 17th-century farmhouse, you can’t simply knock it down and start again. We have to work with these buildings, sympathetically and intelligently.’
Mart Mustkivi, business development manager of Nordic-inspired company Roofit Solar, told the Daily Mail that colour has traditionally been a problem for heritage properties – but now there’s a solution via ‘Coloured Solar Technology’.
He explains: ‘Not every 17th-century cottage suits a black roof. For homes with distinctively coloured roofs – like terracotta tiles or green oxidised copper – we’ve introduced our Velario Slim range.
‘It allows for discreet rooftop solar integration in sensitive zones, ensuring visual harmony with local materials and satisfying the strict visual requirements of UNESCO sites and conservation areas.’
Recent disputes in the UK have centred around how solar panels and farms in their current guise look unsightly in landscapes and on properties that have been unchanged for centuries
The solar egg, a sauna powered by a glinting gold exterior created in 2017 by artists Bigert & Bergstrom on behalf of a Swedish housing association
Read More
Ed Miliband’s genius answer to the Iran energy crisis: £400 plug-in solar panels from the ‘Middle of Lidl’ and forcing newly built homes to install heat pumps
On a much larger scale, it’s happening already all over the globe, say experts, citing the solar egg, a sauna powered by a glinting gold exterior created in 2017 by artists Bigert & Bergstrom on behalf of a Swedish housing association.
Nearly a decade after it was built, the glamorous-looking egg is still going strong in Kiruna in Swedish Lapland.
Roofit.Solar says Gen-Z and younger Millennials are leading the charge for better-looking solutions, with research showing that 82 per cent of 18- to 39-year-olds said aesthetic design had influenced their decision on whether to install a solar solution.
Older consumers were less worried about the aesthetic, the company said, with just 18 per cent of 40 to 59-year-olds and 13 per cent of over-60s saying design had heavily influenced their decision.
Thrift Energy’s Mr Roffo says panels are more efficient than ever but it’s ‘the design revolution’ that’s the big story – we could soon be making decisions about solar panels in the way we do about our wallpaper, kitchen lay-outs and bathroom design.
‘There are products already emerging, solar roof tiles, building-integrated photovoltaics, transparent solar glass, that are genuinely beginning to blur the line between architecture and energy generation.
‘Further ahead, you’ve got perovskite cells, a next-generation solar material that promises dramatically higher efficiency at lower cost, moving rapidly from laboratory to commercial reality.
‘Flexible, ultra-thin solar films that can conform to almost any surface. Even indoor solar, technology that harvests energy from artificial light alone, not just sunlight. And solar noise barriers, highways lined with panels that generate electricity and dampen traffic sound simultaneously. The ambition is extraordinary.’
There is an important caveat, he adds, saying the Microgeneration Certification Scheme, the quality and accreditation framework that governs what can be properly and safely installed in UK homes, ‘all need to mature before these innovations become genuinely accessible to everyday homeowners.’
Simon Edwards, chief executive at EE Renewables, says traditional panels, which are supported by frames installed on a roof, are already falling out of favour.
He tells the Daily Mail: ‘We’re now seeing more people opt for in-roof solar panels, which unlike the more common on-roof panels, are integrated into the roof of your team.
‘This means they appear flush with the roof itself, giving the solar installation a sleeker, cleaner appearance than is possible with panels mounted on top of the roof tiles.’
