30th SOLAR ROOF ANNIVERSARY EVENTS
TWO EVENTS ARE HAPPENING ON THE 20TH JUNE 2025:
- Progress in Solar Architecture – Half Day event
Friday, June 20 – 12.30 to 5pm
From 2027 all new UK homes are to have solar systems. This event brings attendees up to date with current thinking on the best ways to integrate solar technologies including PV, Solar Hot Water, Batteries and with thermal energy storage into the architecture of buildings. Clients are now demanding solar systems and regulations promote their use. For architects, developers and home owners it is important to understand how to design and detail solar systems well to ensure they both look good and perform well.
This half day event is held on the anniversary of the launch of Britain’s first integrated PV roof thirty years ago on the nearby Oxford Ecohouse. It aims to provide architects and builders with an opportunity to keep up-to-date with thinking and practice in solar design. Set against a short history of the use of the technologies on buildings by pioneering designers, attendees will gain insights into how to integrate solar technologies interestingly, elegantly and efficiently into buildings with perspectives from practice from Charlie Luxton and Alex Michaelis. A view on how solar systems might evolve in the future in a heating climate also comes with Ricardo Ruther, from Brazil, with insights from Industry Manufacturers and Installers.
12.30 Registration and Refreshments at the Leonardo Royal Hotel
13.00 Mark Candlish:..Welcome Introduction to the afternoon
13.15 Sue Roaf, George Goudsmit and Bruce Cross: The Building Blocks of Building Integrated Solar Systems
13.45 Alex Michaelis: From Solar Buildings to Solar Architecture – sixty years of solar design
14.45…. Charlie Luxton: Making solar work well on homes today
15.15 .TEA
15.45….Ricardo Ruther: Solar Lessons for a hotter future from Brazil.
16.15….Chris Jardine: Solar First for Net Zero Buildings
16.30 Open Floor Session. Chair: Susan Roaf – Panel: Mark Candlish, Chris Jardine, Ricardo Ruther, Alex Michaelis and Charlie Luxton,
17.00 Event ends – moving on to the Solar Pioneers Party at the Oxford Ecohouse
Organized by Ecohouse Initiative Sponsored by GB-Sol
2. The Solar Revolution Party – 30 Years On!
Friday, June 20 – 17.00 – 22.00
The Solar Roof Revolution really began in Britain around 1995 when the Oxford Ecohouse was the focus of international attention with its integrated solar roof combining photovoltaics, solar hot water and passive solar systems. They were designed to provide 100% of the electricity for the low energy house and also charge a Kewet El-Jet electric car. This ordinary, but pioneering home was the first UK grid-connected PV system and it caught the imagination of generation. It was used as a teaching tool for architects, engineers, decision makers and the general public alike.
The result of inputs from many different experts and sponsors who contributed to it – working to solve the challenges of the novel systems involved. Many of its lessons were recorded in the popular “Ecohouse Design Guide” that sold tens of thousands of copies in four editions in five different languages. Join us in a joyous celebration to meet some of those solar pioneers and many others who have bought and built the solar systems that 30 years on that have done nothing less than create the solar revolution with which Humanity’s clean energy transformation is being built. From one house to nearly two million solar buildings today in Britain – we deserve a really good party.
Join Us for the Solar Revolution Party
Help us celebrate the Solar Revolution with the 30th Anniversary of the 1st UK Integrated Solar Roof on the 1995 Oxford Ecohouse at the Solar Pioneers party
Organized by Ecohouse Initiative Sponsored by AES Solar and 100GREEN
