See the light and power homes with panels

THE covid lockdown drove many of us a little crazy. Those long days confined to the house in close proximity with those we loved but whose personal habits began to grate after too many hours together.

We were fortunate to live somewhere with many footpaths in beautiful empty countryside very close at hand and I took to cycling to the ruined St James Chapel in the Stonor Valley where I could enjoy some blissful solitude with a flask of coffee.

One thing I didn’t think to do was to move our bed on to the roof of our home and sleep there for several weeks. But more of this later.

Dan Edelstyn and Hilary Powell, filmmakers and partners in life as well as work, listened to depressing news about the environment and the cost of living, in particular the rapidly increasing price of energy, and decided to try and do something about it in their own street in Walthamstow, East London.

In Walthamstow, 27 per cent of people are in fuel poverty, defined as needing to spend 10 per cent or more of your income on energy. Many people in fuel poverty are unable to heat their homes properly resulting in an increased risk of respiratory and cardiovascular disease, asthma, bronchitis and heart attacks. Black mould which grows in cold, damp homes exacerbates lung conditions and is particularly dangerous for the old and young.

Dan and Hilary spotted an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. If every house in their street — composed of Victorian terraced homes — had solar panels fitted, this would simultaneously reduce electricity bills and greenhouse gas emissions. Their whole street could become a power station of its own. Being filmmakers, they decided to make a film about their efforts which you can see at selected cinemas and online.

Dan and Hilary wanted everyone in their street — a lady of 100 who had been born in her house in 1921, a family from Pakistan who had been settled in Walthamstow for more than 40 years, neighbours from all walks of life and backgrounds — to be able to participate. Finding the up-front money was not to be a barrier.

The couple launched a crowdfunder and, finding donations going more slowly than they would like, decided that an eye-catching sponsored event, more interesting than a sponsored walk or swim, was required.

This is how the idea of sleeping on the roof was born. Dan and Hilary moved their bed on to the roof of their home. Every night they climbed up through the skylight and clambered into bed, reading for a while by the light of their bedside lamp. As the weather turned colder and wetter they covered their bed with a plastic sheet and endured rain and frost with fortitude.

Such an unusual stunt attracted local news channels, newspapers and social media and soon Dan and Hilary were on Channel 4 news and the cover of the Observer. The crowdfunder grew and at £100,000 they called it a day. Not enough to put panels on every house in the street but enough to start buying and installing.

The film is amusing and it’s hard not to like this slightly chaotic couple.

But how valuable were their efforts to put solar panels on every roof, in their street and then in every street in Britain?

Britain is making huge strides in installing renewable sources of electricity. In the 12 months to September 2025, renewables accounted for 42.9 per cent of the energy mix — 22.7 per cent wind, seven per cent biomass, six per cent solar and one per cent hydro.

But solar is lagging well behind wind and this is driving plans for large solar farms in the countryside. The one at Botley West in Oxfordshire will cover 2,000 acres of farmland. At full capacity, the farm will provide 840MW of electricity — enough to power 330,000 homes.

Much as I support the expansion of solar power, indeed, I’ve had solar panels myself for 13 years, my heart sinks a bit at the sight of one of these mega farms. Although the panels can be removed, the sea of black in the countryside where there was once green farmland is not, to my mind, at all attractive in the rural landscape.

Which is why I find the Government’s Solar Roadmap, published in June this year, so encouraging. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has accepted the arguments of many countryside charities in adopting a “rooftop revolution” for solar power with a “roofs first” policy. Put simply, the Government is determined to fit solar panels on all new homes, wherever possible, and retrofit them on to existing homes and commercial business premises by removing barriers to installation. Solar canopies on other existing sites, such as car parks, will also be encouraged.

The opportunity is huge. Research from countryside charity the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) shows that installing solar panels on new buildings, existing large warehouse rooftops, car parks and residential roofs could provide at least half of the national target of 70GW of solar energy by 2035. Even better, it would not be controversial.

But, as we found when running a campaign to help local residents install solar panels a few years ago, there are significant stumbling blocks. Ownership of many commercial buildings is often opaque. We found that several retail premises in Henley are ultimately owned by offshore trusts. Planning rules can be difficult to overcome and, for residents, the upfront cost of the panels and worries about damage to their roof are off-putting.

The solar roadmap aims to tackle many of these barriers. The Future Homes Standard, which sets out standards which builders must follow, will mandate solar on new buildings. The government intends to remove one of the biggest stumbling blocks to installing solar for many families — finding the finance — through the provision of low-cost loans and grants. For commercial buildings, regulatory reform of the commercial leasing system should make it easier to install solar on large warehouse roofs.

Meanwhile, the CPRE is launching a project of its own aiming to help homeowners interested in installing solar panels but who are unsure of where to start or what questions to ask. It is running workshops where questions can be asked with no obligations and existing panel owners can share their real experiences.

My own panels have saved me significant sums of money on my energy bills for several years and, since installation, have needed no maintenance apart from the replacement of the solar inverter after 12 years of use. I would, however, recommend that you mend any broken tiles before installation, as the panels will need to be taken off and then put back on to mend them. An extra job and cost.

If you are interested in solar panels, do look out for the workshops in the new year and, to watch Dan and Hilary’s film, Power Station, visit power.film