Phantom solar panels haunt streets of Westminster

The phan­tom image of a solar farm has appeared overnight on the pave­ment out­side the main Depart­ment of Ener­gy and Cli­mate Change offices on White­hall.

This morn­ing we used clean graf­fi­ti to turn paving-stones into solar pan­els, kick­ing off our Keep Fits cam­paign to help ordi­nary peo­ple chal­lenge planned cuts to renew­able ener­gy.

The whole gov­ern­ment con­sul­ta­tion process is pret­ty off-putting to any­one oth­er than a pro­fes­sion­al lob­by­ist, so we’ve devel­oped a ded­i­cat­ed web­site to make sure every­one who loves renew­able ener­gy can have their say on the pro­posed cuts.

Pres­sure has been mount­ing ever since the gov­ern­ment released their pro­pos­al (sneak­i­ly, while we were all away on sum­mer hol­i­days). Last week a coali­tion of ener­gy firms, investors, trade bod­ies and NGOs pub­lished a state­ment call­ing on the gov­ern­ment to urgent­ly recon­sid­er the pro­posed changes. And the May­or of Lon­don Boris John­son is one of sev­er­al MPs to have pub­licly voiced con­cerns over the jobs these cuts threat­en, as well as the envi­ron­men­tal impacts.

“The government’s own fig­ures show there will be near­ly a mil­lion few­er solar rooftops over the next 5 years if they go through with these cuts. The gov­ern­ment wants to pull the plug on Britain’s solar rev­o­lu­tion just as it is get­ting going.

Amy Cameron

Renew­able ener­gy is con­sis­tent­ly pop­u­lar amongst the UK pub­lic. Accord­ing to the lat­est DECC polling, only 1% of the UK pub­lic strong­ly oppose renew­ables. In con­trast a whop­ping 71% agree that renew­able ener­gy indus­tries and devel­op­ments pro­vide eco­nom­ic ben­e­fits to the UK.

Using high-pow­er wash­ers and a sten­cil, clean graf­fi­ti removes dirt from dirty pave­ments rather than adding paint. How quick­ly these ghost­ly images fade depends on local envi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions, but we’re hop­ing they will last right up until the con­sul­ta­tion clos­es on the 23rd Octo­ber.

If you’re walk­ing past today, why not share a pho­to of your­self stand­ing on the pan­els. #Stand­With­So­lar.

Update The pan­els sur­vived until lunchtime, when they were washed off!