The growth of renewables, including solar energy, has been swift in recent years, but progress has been accelerated further by the impact of the Ukraine War on the supply of fossil fuels.

With Vladimir Putin now persona non grata, western nations have been cutting down on their use of Russian oil and gas, both to reduce funding for its military machine and prevent the Kremlin from using fossil fuel as a tool of geopolitical blackmail.

However, all that has come at a cost, with high gas prices and future projects such as Nordstream 2 being cancelled. While the UK used very little Russian gas even before the war, the Rough Storage Facility was reopened late last year.

While this has gone on, the search for alternatives has intensified, pushing renewables even more to the forefront. According to Euronews, this means that wind and solar development have gone into “hyperdrive” and are set to overtake fossil fuels in the EU very soon.

Energy think tank Ember said that across the bloc, wind and solar had been responsible for almost a third of the electricity produced in May, exceeding the 27 per cent coming from fossil fuels. The rest was generated by other sources such as nuclear. Ember’s lead Sarah Brown said: “Clean power keeps smashing record after record."

Indeed, solar produced 14 per cent of EU electricity in May, an all-time record. That begs an interesting question: While the UK no longer forms part of the EU, post-Brexit comparisons across all sorts of areas are inevitable. It may be asked whether Britain can match such renewable growth.

There are certainly some promising developments out there. For instance, Scottish Power has recently announced an initiative to provide finance for customers for solar panel installation on their home roofs. They have become the latest in a number of schemes to provide such finance.

A key point with this arrangement is that the panels do not just power homes, but enable householders to earn more by feeding the surplus generated into the national grid. This and other schemes can, therefore, be a great investment for the future.

Of course, the total sum of energy generated by solar panels in the EU does not just come from residential buildings with panels on the roof. Commercial and public buildings, plus solar farms, account for a large proportion.

This is also true in the UK, with Business Live reporting that Swansea Council has just approved its first solar farm, consisting of 5,500 panels spread over 11 hectares at the former Tir John landfill site in Port Tennant.

A key difference between this array and panels on homes, however, is the extent to which local residents will benefit. Although some of the energy will be used by the nearby Welsh Waterworks treatment plant at Crymlyn Burrows, which will provide income for the council to spend on services, most of the electricity will go into the national grid without any financial boost to locals.

That goes to show that installing panels on your own home can be the best way of providing you with a financial return, while helping Britain keep up with Europe in increasing its solar energy output.