Renewables for Households: Solar PV

Rethinking household energy provision – explore the how to’s of solar PV for households.

Solar panels: where should you put them? How much power will you get? How much money will you save? What will your emission reduction look like? This one day course aims to answer these questions and more through a series of lectures and hands on sessions.

Key information

Duration: one day
Upcoming date: Saturday 18th April 2026
Start and finish times: starts at 9:30am and ends at 3:30pm
Fee: £125
Includes: tuition, Lunch.
What to bring: waterproof clothing is recommended
Terms and Conditions:
- you must be 18 years or over to attend our courses.
- For full list of terms and conditions click here

What you will learn

This course will give you the ability to decide if solar panels are suited to your needs, develop a cost benefit analysis and quantify the emissions reductions.

It will give an overview of the different commercially available PV panels, and how to assess their efficiency. You’ll learn how to undertake a solar photovoltaic resource analysis, calculating the likely annual output for a given site.

Your expert tutor Alan will guide you through how to select the best location and orientation, size of system, and methods of connecting solar PVs. You’ll also have the chance to see and discuss the many solar PV’s on site at CAT.

A basic knowledge of MS Excel (or equivalent) is desirable for this course.

Renewables for Households courses

This course is part of a series exploring renewable energy technologies for households. Each course can be taken as a standalone or as a series where they will equip you with the skills and knowledge to implement different renewable technologies in your home.

Meet your tutor

Alan is a Chartered Energy Engineer and lecturer on our postgraduate courses here at CAT. His research ranges from numerical modelling of sustainable energy systems and resources in Europe, to developing international sustainable energy policy and strategy in post-conflict/post-disaster areas of South East Asia.