Energy minister pledges to put solar panels on ‘every possible rooftop’

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Energy minister pledges to put solar panels on ‘every possible rooftop’

Energy minister Michael Shanks has pledged to put solar panels on “every possible rooftop right across the country”. “If there is a rooftop that we can put solar panels on, we are keen to do so,” Shanks told the Commons, as he claimed the public are in support of solar. The government announced plans to […]

Energy minister Michael Shanks has pledged to put solar panels on “every possible rooftop right across the country”.

“If there is a rooftop that we can put solar panels on, we are keen to do so,” Shanks told the Commons, as he claimed the public are in support of solar.

The government announced plans to create “solar carports” earlier this month, with supermarkets, offices and shopping centres required to install solar panels over their car parks.

Housebuilders will also be forced to fit solar panels to all new properties by 2027, under government plans.

Speaking during the debate on solar panels, Shanks told the Commons: “Rooftop solar, as many members have raised, is important. This isn’t an either or, we do see a real opportunity to put solar on every possible rooftop right across the country.

“We have announced that in terms of new homes, we have announced their ambition in terms of industrial buildings, and just recently, we launched a consultation or a call for evidence on car parks as well.

“If there is a rooftop that we can put solar panels on, we are keen to do so. But there will, of course, also be a role to play for ground-mounted solar as well.

“I finally on this point want to say that the public, of course, also support this.

“And many members opposite have said that they have done their own surveys where, funnily enough, it gets the result that they are hoping to get. But 88% in the most recent poll of people said that they support solar, and that figure has never dipped below 80%.

“So there is a question here about balance, which I have said in this House on a number of occasions, and I will say again: we want to build a clean power system that brings communities with us, that requires a balance of different technologies in different parts of the country.

“But it is not credible to come to here and say, we support the building of infrastructure, but please don’t build it in my constituency.”

Earlier in the debate, Labour MP Terry Jermy denied being a nimby as he expressed opposition to a solar farm being built in his constituency.

The MP for former prime minister Liz Truss’ constituency of South West Norfolk, said: “We have seen a sudden influx of solar farm applications, and it has become one of the most contentious and spoken about issues locally.

“To be clear at the outset, I am not a nimby, or even a rural nimby, as I have been referred to of late.

“I support the government’s growth agenda. I very much welcome the much-needed growth in my constituency, and I am not anti-solar or indeed anti-solar farm.

“I recognise the need for energy security, and I support net-zero ambitions, but we must approach these challenges and the solutions pragmatically and with due regard for local communities and recognise the implications.”

He added: “Solar farms are being disproportionately sited on better quality farmland rather than on poorer quality land.

“There is three times more grade five agricultural land in the UK than grade one. Five being the lowest quality land as referred to earlier, one being the best, yet solar installations occupy 20 times more grade one than grade five.

“That cannot be desirable or indeed acceptable. I firmly believe that grade two agricultural land and above should be protected and prioritised for food production.

“The National Planning Policy Framework considers one, two and grade three as the best and most versatile, and prioritises their protection. But that prioritisation is clearly not influencing the proposals.”

Conservative former minister Sir David Davis said a solar farm in his constituency of Goole and Pocklington was approved “on the nod”.

He said: “Last Monday the East Yorkshire solar farm in my constituency of 3,150 acres was approved. Not many policies make me angry in this place, but this one did for my constituents. Why? Because the decision rode roughshod over the desires and wishes and expressed complaints of my constituents.

“It will cover an area the size of Durham. Imagine if we were applying to build a town the size of Durham. How long the planning would take. This went through effectively on the nod. The so-called consultation process was little more than a rubber stamping operation.”

Responding to the debate, Shanks said: “There is a robust planning system in place.”

He added that communities are “frequently consulted on, and that plays a critical part in the decisions that are made about these projects”.

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What do you get when combining Morpheus with Aruba? As part of the extensible platform message that HPE is promoting with Morpheus, it’s also working in some capabilities from the broader HPE portfolio. One integration is with HPE Aruba for networking microsegmentation. Bhardwaj noted that a lot of HPE Morpheus users are looking for microsegmentation in order to make sure that the traffic between two virtual machines on a server is secure. “The traditional approach of doing that is on the hypervisor, but that costs cycles on the hypervisor,” Bhardwaj said. “Frankly, the way that’s being delivered today, customers have to pay extra cost on the server.” With the HPE Aruba plugin that now works with HPE Morpheus, the microsegmentation capability can be enabled at the switch level. Bhardwaj said that by doing the microsegmentation in the switch and not the hypervisor, costs can be lowered and performance can be increased. The integration brings additional capabilities, including the ability to support VPN and network address translation (NAT) in an integrated way between the switch and the hypervisor. VMware isn’t the only hypervisor supported by HPE The HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Hypervisor is another new element in the HPE cloud portfolio. The hypervisor is now being integrated into HPE’s private cloud offerings for both data center as well as edge deployments.

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According to Pinkesh Kotecha, chairman and MD of Ishan Technologies, AMD’s 4th Gen EPYC processors stood out because they offer the right combination of high performance, energy efficiency, and security. “Their high core density and ability to optimize performance per watt made them ideal for managing data-intensive operations like real-time analytics and high-frequency transactions. Additionally, AMD’s strong AI roadmap and growing portfolio of AI-optimised solutions position them as a forward-looking partner, ready to support our customers’ evolving AI and data needs. This alignment made AMD a clear choice over alternatives,” Kotecha said. By integrating AMD EPYC processors, Ishan Technologies’ Ishan Cloud plans to empower enterprises across BFSI, ITeS, and manufacturing industries, as well as global capability centers and government organizations, to meet India’s data localization requirements and drive AI-led digital transformation. “The AMD EPYC 4005 series’ price-to-performance ratio makes it an attractive option for cloud hosting and web services, where cost-efficient, always-on performance is essential,” said Manish Rawat, analyst, TechInsights. Prabhu Ram, VP for the industry research group at CMR, said EPYC 4005 processors deliver a compelling mix of performance-per-watt, higher core counts, and modern I/O support, positioning it as a strong alternative to Intel’s Xeon E-2400 and 6300P, particularly for edge deployments. Shah of Counterpoint added, “While ARM-based Ampere Altra promises higher power efficiencies and is ideally adopted in more cloud and hyperscale data centers, though performance is something where x86-based Zen 5 architecture excels and nicely balances the efficiencies with lower TDPs, better software compatibilities supported by a more mature ecosystem.”

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Along with the certification, Intel is offering a Xeon processor single-phase immersion warranty rider. This indicates Intel’s confidence in the durability and effectiveness of Shell’s fluids. Yates explained that the rider augments Intel’s standard warranty terms and is available to data center operators deploying 4th and 5th generation Xeon processors in Shell immersion fluids. The rider is intended to provide data center operators confidence that their investment is guaranteed when deployed correctly. Shell’s fluids are available globally and can be employed in retrofitted existing infrastructure or used in new builds. Cuts resource use, increases performance Data centers consume anywhere from 10 to 50 times more energy per square foot than traditional office buildings, and they are projected to drive more than 20% of the growth in electricity demand between now and 2030. Largely due to the explosion of AI, data center energy consumption is expected to double from 415 terawatt-hours in 2024 to around 945 TWh by 2030. There are several other technologies used for data center cooling, including air cooling, cold plate (direct-to-chip), and precision cooling (targeted to specific areas), but the use of immersion cooling has been growing, and is expected to account for 36% of data center thermal management revenue by 2028. With this method, servers and networking equipment are placed in cooling fluids that absorb and dissipate heat generated by the electronic equipment. These specialized fluids are thermally conductive but not electrically conductive (dielectric) thus making them safe for submerging electrical equipment.

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John Deere unveils more autonomous farm machines to address skill labor shortage

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Self-driving tractors might be the path to self-driving cars. John Deere has revealed a new line of autonomous machines and tech across agriculture, construction and commercial landscaping. The Moline, Illinois-based John Deere has been in business for 187 years, yet it’s been a regular as a non-tech company showing off technology at the big tech trade show in Las Vegas and is back at CES 2025 with more autonomous tractors and other vehicles. This is not something we usually cover, but John Deere has a lot of data that is interesting in the big picture of tech. The message from the company is that there aren’t enough skilled farm laborers to do the work that its customers need. It’s been a challenge for most of the last two decades, said Jahmy Hindman, CTO at John Deere, in a briefing. Much of the tech will come this fall and after that. He noted that the average farmer in the U.S. is over 58 and works 12 to 18 hours a day to grow food for us. And he said the American Farm Bureau Federation estimates there are roughly 2.4 million farm jobs that need to be filled annually; and the agricultural work force continues to shrink. (This is my hint to the anti-immigration crowd). John Deere’s autonomous 9RX Tractor. Farmers can oversee it using an app. While each of these industries experiences their own set of challenges, a commonality across all is skilled labor availability. In construction, about 80% percent of contractors struggle to find skilled labor. And in commercial landscaping, 86% of landscaping business owners can’t find labor to fill open positions, he said. “They have to figure out how to do

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OpenAI’s red teaming innovations define new essentials for security leaders in the AI era

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