Two of my New Year green resolutions – Part One

With many people making New Year’s resolutions this month, Midlands green energy expert Ron Fox gives two of his suggestions for 2026.

Take care over solar panels: According to QBE Insurance, there has been a small increase in solar panel fires, with firefighters called out roughly once every two days due to incorrect installation or poor maintenance.

Research showed there has been a 60 per cent increase in solar panel fires in 2024 compared to 2022. A total of 171 fires were linked to the technology out of 1.8 million domestic and commercial premises with solar panel systems.

“But that is still only about ten fires out of every 100,000 installations,” said Ron, of Noreus Ltd on the University of Keele Science Innovation Park. “And that figure was eight fires out of 100,000 in 2022.”

Most problems occur in the inverters, which convert direct current from panels into alternating current for the Grid, generating significant heat. Blazes can also originate from the panels themselves or from the cabling and lithium -ion batteries, but these are all relatively rare.

But Ron pointed out that in 2024 firefighters attended 38,000 fires at buildings, with most of those caused by cooking accidents, faulty electrical appliances, smoking and candles.

With the UK moving out to clean energy at a greater pace each year, Ron said it was more important than ever to ensure solar panels are fitted by a certified installer and checked regularly by a trusted company.

Take care over recycling: According to a report by the environmental charity Wrap, more than nine billion recyclable items are wrongly sent to landfill or to be incinerated.

It said the most common items to be incorrectly disposed of are: yoghurt pots, empty bottles of perfume and cleaning spray, aerosol cans and the cardboard tube in the middle of a toilet roll, which can all be recycled.

Wrap said the overwhelming majority of people want to follow the correct procedure with 88 per cent recycling regularly, but 79 per cent of people often put an item in the rubbish that should instead be recycled.

The charity said people are really good at recycling items from the downstairs and the kitchen in their home, but less so in the bedroom and the bathroom. There they throw everything in the one bin. But the simple solution is either to have two containers in the upstairs rooms or separate the items before taking them downstairs to the bins.

Another problem may be that that people might not want to clean out bottles of bleach or pots of yoghurt to put it in the recycling bin and instead throw them in the general waste bin.

“If everybody decided this year to rescue more items from the main bin every week and recycle them instead of sending them to landfill and incineration, the more we do to help reduce our impact on the climate,” concluded Ron.

Part 2 next week.

Caption: Take care over looking after solar panels. Picture supplied by Noreus