FREE energy is available to us all every day, all we have to do is make the best use of it. Solar energy powers the Earth, it governs our weather and gives plants the energy they need to fuel the food chain. It can even heat your hot water and run your lights.

But solar power has had a pretty poor reputation in this country because it has been very expensive to install and because we do not see ourselves as living in a country where sunlight is one of our best resources.

Greater realisation that we need to do something drastic to find alternatives to fossil fuels and the Government's Kyoto agreement to reduce carbon dioxide emissions have boosted the industry.

Grants are now available to install solar systems, which are a large motivation to growth in the market.

Since being introduced to Britain 30 years ago, solar power has been almost exclusively a choice for the domestic customer. Businesses have shied away from the relatively higher investment and longer payback times that are involved.

Dan Ludgate is co-ordinator for a new project promoting solar energy in the Tees Valley.

He said: "For a deep green person, the benefits would not be just financial savings. The people that tend to go for a solar hot water installation are generally deep green people and 'Mr Gadgetman' people.

"The UK domestic market for solar thermal is about 50,000 installations, and that is growing about ten per cent in the last financial year.

"In a typical house, it saves between £20 and £200 a year and 440kg of carbon dioxide emissions."

Mr Ludgate knows of only a handful of businesses across the region that have solar technologies installed.

Ian Calderwood owns Secon Solar Limited, in Sunderland, and has been installing systems for more than 20 years. He said: "It is a niche market that is growing and opening up at considerable speed over the past 18 months.

"The Government has realised that in order to reach their targets on CO2 emissions, they have to look towards renewable technologies.

"In the 1970s, the idea was always that the market would be in the council sector, but it never happened that way. The market went down the domestic route."

Commercial enterprises which could benefit massively in reduced heating costs from solar thermal heating are swimming pools, which need to heat lots of water.

For premises on a mains gas supply, the costs of installing solar power take too long to recoup for most businesses to be interested, but for those off the mains supply it is a different matter. Costs can be further offset if solar panels are installed as part of a re-roofing project.

Mr Calderwood is supervising the installation of systems in Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council's area so local companies can become accredited installers for the Clear Skies grant scheme. Two companies, The Insulation Company, from Darlington, and H and B Plumbing, from Saltburn, will then be able to fit grant-subsidised systems.

Ten homes off the gas main that are considered hard to heat have been chosen to receive solar water heating systems to enable the local firms to receive accreditation and serve as examples to people thinking of having a system in their homes.

Fiona Goggins, of Charltons, near Guisborough, east Cleveland, is one of those selected. She said: "I don't know what caused it, but I am very glad. It is supposed to reduce my costs for hot water.

"I have always been interested in things like that, but I haven't had the wherewithal to have anything like this done."

Mr Calderwood said that in other European countries, there was a greater willingness from businesses to make a commitment to renewable energy because the argument was much further advanced and because it improved their green credentials.

At the moment, installation companies from the Continent are showing a greater interest in the British market as it is poised to open up.

Published: 11/05/2004