Dr Chris's Solar Surgery

Dr Chris Jardine is recognised as one of the UK’s foremost experts in the field of solar photovoltaics.

Chris first started looking at solar PV as a researcher at Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute in 2001.  At that time, solar PV hardly featured in the UK, and Chris’s role running the PV Compare project was instrumental in proving solar PV as a viable renewable energy technology in the UK.  This side-by-side comparison of different solar modules provided the first benchmarks for solar energy system performance in this country and proved that, yes – solar PV does work in the UK, even under our cloudy skies.

Having demonstrated that PV works in the UK, the question then became – why isn’t it everywhere?  The answer to that question lies in the fields of technological and industry innovation, and the policy mechanisms in place to support that innovation.  Chris has written critically of previous government grant-based incentive schemes and has been a long proponent of a feed-in-tariff mechanism as the most effective means of developing a nascent solar PV industry – something we are finally beginning to see take shape.

Alongside his role as Technical Director of Joju Solar, Chris continues to teach on the MSc course in Environmental Change and Management at Oxford University, training the next generation of graduates to understand energy systems, and the interface between technology, behaviour and energy policy. Hopefully they'll all come and work with Joju Solar one day!

To see publications and presentations from Chris click here or you can call us on 0800 0542 977.