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Gareth Simkins

@garethsimkins.bsky.social
883 followers 1.5K following 3.9K posts

Senior Comms Adviser @solarenergyuk.bsky.social Trustee @chemtrust.bsky.social Project Manager @croydoncommenergy.bsky.social Co-founder, Campaign for Safe Furniture. Ex- @endsreport.com. Cargobiker. Happiest geek you ever met. Own views.

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Gareth Simkins @garethsimkins.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
@andrewhunterm.bsky.social Hi Andrew. I think you sent me a DM but I can’t read it as I haven’t set up my ID. Please email me at gsimkins@solarenergyuk.org. I will try and email you directly in a moment.
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Liz Webster 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇬🇧🇪🇺 @lizwebster.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
🔴 Stella Creasy nails it 👏 You can’t say our energy system has left us vulnerable… and then oppose the only things that actually make us independent. Oil and gas tie us to global markets. Renewables break that link. It really is that simple.
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Dave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
Every day is a good day to point out that 92% of Reform's donations were found to come from figures and groups linked to the fossil fuel industry. @desmog.com
desmog.com
Nigel Farage’s Reform Party Has Accepted £2.3 Million from Fossil Fuel Interests, Climate Deniers, and Polluters Since 2019 Election
Reform UK has received more than £2.3 million from oil and gas interests, highly polluting industries, and climate science deniers since December 2019, amounting to 92 percent of the party’s donations...
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Trades Union Congress @tuc.org.uk · 06/09/2025
What's Nigel Farage's problem with solar panels?
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Thomas Pogge @tpogge.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
Conversation with Bill McKibben, whose new book *Here Comes the Sun* is just coming out. www.douglewin.com/p/here-comes... One take-away: solar panels produce 28x as much electricity per acre than biofuel (ethanol).
douglewin.com
Here Comes the Sun: Bill McKibben on Solar’s Breakout Moment
Why getting most of our power from solar and storage is no longer a distant hope but the fastest, cheapest, most common-sense way to power our world.
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Gareth Simkins @garethsimkins.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
I did that.⤵️ The Telegraph’s figures for how many #solar #solarsky panels needed by 2035 were an order of magnitude out, due to some frankly silly maths that assumed solar farms are a flat sea of glass. Breaking news: they aren’t.
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Prof Richard Betts @richardabetts.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
Yes climate change is already killing people www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/pub...
Bar chart showing heat-related deaths in several European cities from 23 June to 2 July 2025, distinguishing between numbers due to human-caused climate change and those due to natural variability
Milan: 317 from human caused climate change, 182 natural
Barcelona: 286, 54
Paris: 235, 138
London: 171, 92
Rome: 164, 118
Madrid: 108, (then some relatively small number not given)
Athens: 96, 79
Budapest: 47, 24
Zagreb: 31, 25
Lisbon: 21, 71
Frankfurt: 21 (then some relatively small number not given)

Added text says two-thirds of heat deaths in London were attributable to climate change

Guardian graphic, source: World Weather Attribution, Grantham Institute, Imperial College London
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Gareth Simkins @garethsimkins.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Delighted to say that the UK's government-industry Solar Roadmap was published this morning, describing dozens of practical measures to boost the supply of cheaper, greener power, deliver new industries and create skilled jobs. #solarsky #solarenergy solarenergyuk.org/news/roadmap... #solarenergy
solarenergyuk.org
Roadmap seizes ‘once-in-a-generation’ opportunity of the solar revolution
A new era of clean energy independence dawned today, with the publication of the long-anticipated Solar Roadmap
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Gareth Simkins @garethsimkins.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Now this is what I like to see. Ed Miliband said: “We’re going to win this fight... The forces that oppose #netzero will have to reckon not just with the government. They will have to reckon with all these companies that are creating jobs.” 💪☀️🔋⚡ www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Ed Miliband says Labour will ‘win fight’ against UK net zero critics
Energy secretary speaks at launch of £1bn investment scheme to bolster jobs in offshore wind supply chain
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ErhanEren@enkiai.com @netzerointel.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
⚡Offshore just leveled up 🌊☀️ World’s first offshore wind-solar hybrid kicks off in the Dutch North Sea . 🔗Wind + solar = 5x output ⚓Anchors deployed 🏗️Shell & Eneco joint project We track the #EnergyTransition — end to end. See how at enkiai.com #Energy #CleanTech
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Warren Oates @warrenoates1.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
Brilliant! The Labour government has issued over £630m to schools, hospitals, and other public buildings for measures including heat pumps, solar panels, insulation and double glazing. It is estimated measures like this will save the public sector around £650m a year over the next 12 years. 1/3
gov.uk
New energy upgrades for public buildings to save taxpayers money
Schools, community centres and care homes receive new awards to upgrade their buildings and save money off bills in the long term.
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BladeoftheSun @bladeofthes.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
Thames Water has its final legal appeal to allow its £3bn loan tomorrow (at 10% interest that billpayers will pay) If it gets it, it goes bankrupt in 6 months anyway, and you will have to pay it all If it doesn't it goes bankrupt tomorrow RT if Thames Water needs to die
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Gareth Simkins @garethsimkins.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
Some very good news for a change: the % of new English homes fitted with solar panels has leapt up hugely, rising from 13% in the last three months of 2023 to 42% in Q4 last year. Likely over half the market now. Story made the Times on Saturday. #solar #solarsky solarenergyuk.org/news/more-th...
solarenergyuk.org
More than four in ten new homes in England built with solar power
More stringent rules on energy efficiency has driven a surge in residential solar panel installations
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Chris Hewett @chrishewett.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
Energy security is an essential part of our overall European security. Cutting our dependence on expensive, imported gas, via GB Energy, is another way to diminish Putin's power and revenues. Hope someone is making that case in the UK Treasury too. www.ft.com/content/8379...
ft.com
UK Treasury eyes spending cuts at GB Energy in blow to Ed Miliband
State-owned company was set up with mission to invest in renewables and decarbonisation of the grid
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Morgan J Freeman @mjfree.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
I stand with Ukraine 🇺🇦 ❤️ if you do, too.
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Gareth Simkins @garethsimkins.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
My general sense that humanity is, to a reasonable approximation, progressing has really taken a knock of late.
media.tenor.com
a man wearing sunglasses and a black suit is talking to a woman .
ALT: a man wearing sunglasses and a black suit is talking to a woman .
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Dr Paul Dorfman @drpauldorfman.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
#Solar has taken off in US red states. #Trump’s funding freeze is causing panic. #climate www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
theguardian.com
Solar has taken off in red states. Trump’s funding freeze is causing panic
On his first day in office, the president paused billions of dollars in funding for clean energy projects initiated by Biden
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Gareth Simkins @garethsimkins.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
Why does the phrase “sic semper tyrannis” come to mind?
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Doug Parr @dougparr.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Successful rollout of solar panels could lift 1.2 million people in UK out of fuel poverty, & help decarbonise the UK’s electricity system In fuel-poor households savings from rooftop solar panels could reduce energy bills by 24% say @resfoundation.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Solar panels could cut fuel-poor UK families’ energy bills by 24%, says study
Call for means-tested grants or loans to cover upfront costs that prevent poorer households from benefiting
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Gareth Simkins @garethsimkins.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
I'm really proud to have put this release together. There is a lot of military history in my family - two army captains, one of which knew the survivors of Rorke's Drift, Army Air Corps, Royal Marines, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, etc. #solarsky solarenergyuk.org/news/from-se...
solarenergyuk.org
From Sergeant Major to Solar Operative: Solar sector backs veterans
Solar Energy UK is proud to announce that we will be signing the Armed Forces Covenant
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Gareth Simkins @garethsimkins.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
There's some funny business going on outside my house - a fox screaming and a tawny owl hooting back. Never heard that before.
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Gareth Simkins @garethsimkins.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
👀A 1.4GW/3.1GWh battery energy storage system - bigger capacity than anything in the UK and one of the largest in Europe - is going to be built in Doncaster. #energysky
solarpowerportal.co.uk
Doncaster Council approves Fidra Energy’s 1.4GW Thorpe Marsh BESS
Edinburgh-headquartered Fidra Energy has received planning consent for its first battery storage site at Thorpe Marsh, Yorkshire.
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Damian Carrington @dpcarrington.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
"Whatever the disinformation, the misinformation, the truth is that climate action is essential for our national self interest and is supported by the British people," says UK energy secretary Ed Miliband #climatecrisis www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
theguardian.com
UK politics: Miliband tells MPs UK needs to ‘speed up, not slow down’ in net zero drive – as it happened
Energy secretary insists there is ‘no contradiction between net zero and economic growth’ in hearing at Commons committee
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Gareth Simkins @garethsimkins.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
Ed Miliband has approved all of six nationally-significant scale #solarfarms thus far and imagine the counterfactual: refusing a project that would help fulfil manifesto commitments just because of the donation. This is desperate stuff from the Conservatives.
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Gareth Simkins @garethsimkins.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
1984 vibes
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Gareth Simkins @garethsimkins.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
Well, that was two soggy magpies and a damp wood pigeon. Oh well. #biggardenbirdwatch
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Gareth Simkins @garethsimkins.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
I’m doing the #biggardenbirdwatch and for the first time I am odds-on to see nothing at all ☹️ as the weather is so foul.
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Samira Ahmed @samiraahmeduk.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
Wonderful story. Deservedly on the front page.
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Kate Marvel @drkatemarvel.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
some ways to generate electricity A) use sunlight to drive photosynthesis in plants, let plants die, wait ~100 million years, dig up fossilized plants, burn plants, use heat to boil water, use steam to drive a rotating turbine, use generator to make electrons B) use sunlight to make electrons
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Ed Newton-Rex @ednewtonrex.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
Writers, musicians, actors & other creators strongly oppose upending copyright law to favour AI companies, as suggested in the UK's AI Opportunities Action Plan. As Kate Mosse says, seeking economic growth "cannot be on the basis of theft of our work". www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
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Laith Whitwham @laithw.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
This is an absolute magnus opus on the Labour Government's Clean Power Mission from @e3g.bsky.social Here's a run down of the key findings and recommendations, which have massive implications for where we take clean energy in the UK. 1/9 www.e3g.org/publications...
e3g.org
The UK's clean power mission: Delivering the prize
UK government can both achieve its Clean Power 2030 mission and bring down electricity bills for households.
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Gareth Simkins @garethsimkins.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
An amusing little story from over the Pond. I wonder how many Brits of similar sort have gone solar, too? www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...
washingtonpost.com
This Fox News host gives climate skeptics airtime but went solar at home
Bret Baier has come under fire for giving airtime to climate change doubters and clean energy critics. But parts of his D.C. home are covered in solar arrays.
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Gareth Simkins @garethsimkins.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
After rather more to-and-fro than I would have liked, I got the Telegraph to conduct some major surgery on its most ludicrous story about solar farms thus far. Though 100m panels (corrected down from 1bn) by 2035 still sounds a lot, it’s only about 11 days of global solar panel production. Details ⤵️
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James Murray @james-bg.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
The start of 2025 means it is precisely 25 years until net zero targets in the UK, EU, US, etc fall due. Every quarter now represents one per cent of the available time to fully decarbonise industrialised economies. Happy New Year! www.businessgreen.com/news/4392880...
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Harry Eccles @harryeccles.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
Elon Musk has, and should have, absolutely nothing to do with British Politics. Repost if you agree.
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Gareth Simkins @garethsimkins.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
Well, I guess that's what they call a feedback loop. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
‘Ironic’: climate-driven sea level rise will overwhelm major oil ports, study shows
Ports including in Saudi Arabia and the US projected to be seriously damaged by a metre of sea level rise
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Another Green @anothergreen.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
Very useful summary, solar takes up 0.1% of UK land surface but is contributing to an increasingly decarbonised electricity supply.
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Gareth Simkins @garethsimkins.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
My summary of last year is now on Solar Power Portal. www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/2024-the-bes...
solarpowerportal.co.uk
Was 2024 the best year for solar yet?
Gareth Simkins, senior communications adviser for Solar Energy UK, reflects on the past year's progress in the solar sector.
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Alt National Park Service @altnps.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
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Ploy Achakulwisut, PhD @ploya.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
🚨 Recent paper by @gregorsemieniuk.bsky.social et al. show that the 2022 oil & gas crisis resulted in record industry profits at the expense of the clean energy transition, and worsened inflation and inequality as the majority of gains went to the wealthiest 1%. peri.umass.edu?view=article...
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Ed Conway @edconway.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
The most hopeful chart in the world - and its evil twin edconway.substack.com/p/the-most-h...
edconway.substack.com
The Most Hopeful Chart in the World
And its evil twin...
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Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Will solar PV soon be the cheapest source of electricity in most places around the world? This @naturecomms.bsky.social paper says yes. Most surprisingly this is AFTER including short- and long-term storage costs for renewable energy sources. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Gareth Simkins @garethsimkins.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
This is foul.
A screenshot from a website that says: "Pay to Reject - By choosing this option you will see ads across our products, but they will no longer be personalised."
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Gareth Simkins @garethsimkins.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
So proud to reveal this video I helped produce on farmers' views of #solarenergy #solarfarms. "I think when you speak to the majority of farmers that are involved with #solar, everyone’s of the same opinion: it’s allowing you to become a better farmer,” said one. www.youtube.com/watch?si=VUQ...
youtube.com
Empowering British Farmers with Solar Energy
YouTube video by Solar Energy UK
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Kees van der Leun @sustainable2050.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Energy organizations, a new starter pack! Find organizations, both governmental and non-governmental, dedicated to energy, here on Bluesky. Please share and suggest additional accounts to be included. There's room for a couple more ;) go.bsky.app/L6TC36e
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Gareth Simkins @garethsimkins.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
An absolutely shocking interview from @chemtrust.bsky.social. “The impact of #PFAS on the immune system was much stronger than the impact of PCBs: for every doubling of PFAS exposure at the age of 5, the vaccine antibodies were reduced by 50% at the age of 7.” www.linkedin.com/pulse/toxicf...
linkedin.com
Toxic-Free for EU: Interview with Professor Pál Weihe on PFAS and children's immunity
This Wednesday was World Children’s Day. On this occasion, we talked with Professor Pál Weihe, who led research showing the impact of PFAS on children's immune systems in the Faroe Islands.
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Solar Energy UK @solarenergyuk.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
🌞 UK solar smashing targets! Current capacity heading to 20GW by year-end w/ 180k+ new installations. "The industry persistently exceeds expectations & will continue to do so" - @chrishewett.bsky.social . Read more on the exciting developments ahead 👇 solarenergyuk.org/news/solar-s...
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Gareth Simkins @garethsimkins.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
@g0ktw.bsky.social Hi John. Just noticed the follow. Did you know my father John Simkins G8IYS?
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Gareth Simkins @garethsimkins.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Well, who would have thought that the industry that knew about the impacts of climate change for decades but still kept schtum about it would tell a few porkie pies about methane emissions missions? I’m stunned, I tell ya.
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Remember all the outraged coverage about a handful of climate protesters slowing ambulances a few years back? Well it turns out that wealthy farmers doing exactly the same thing on a much bigger scale is absolutely fine bylinetimes.com/2024/12/12/t...
bylinetimes.com
Two-Tier Reporting: When Climate Protesters Slow Ambulances They’re Vilified, So Why Are Wealthy Farmers Given a Free Pass?
Media outlets rush to condemn climate change campaigners as "middle class" protesters causing "chaos" while ignoring greater disruption by millionaire landowners
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