astronomy

Solarcentury

Solarcentury is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Solarcentury rather than just read about it. In short: Solarcentury was the UK's largest solar company. Solarcentury was founded in 1998 by former oil geologist Jeremy Leggett, and had an annual turnover of £168 million in 2015–16.

Key takeaways

Solarcentury belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Solarcentury to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Solarcentury from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Solarcentury was the UK's largest solar company. Solarcentury was founded in 1998 by former oil geologist Jeremy Leggett, and had an annual turnover of £168 million in 2015–16. The company were in partnership with Panama-based private equity firm ECOSolar, and had acquired the 400MW Divisa Project in Panama. Solarcentury gave a 5% share of profits to SolarAid, a charity founded by Solarcentury in 2006, that supplies mini home-solar installations in Africa on a pay as you go basis. Solarcentury was bought by Statkraft in November 2020 for £118 million.

History In May 2017, the company announced that it was shifting its focus from the UK, where 85% of its business is, and pursuing £3 billion of projects in Latin America and Europe. In 2019 Solarcentury announced an eightfold increase in annual profits to £14.4 million, largely due to constructing and operating unsubsidised solar farms in southern Europe, Latin America and Africa. In November 2020, the Norwegian renewables company Statkraft announced it had acquired Solarcentury, taking full control of the company.

References

External links Official website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Solarcentury

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Solarcentury claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Solarcentury before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Solarcentury ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Solarcentury

In research: Solarcentury appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Solarcentury in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Solarcentury is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1998 establishments in the United Kingdom, Energy company stubs, Solar energy companies of Europe, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Solarcentury outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Solarcentury in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Solarcentury means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Solarcentury out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Solarcentury in simple terms?

Solarcentury was the UK's largest solar company. Solarcentury was founded in 1998 by former oil geologist Jeremy Leggett, and had an annual turnover of £168 million in 2015–16.

Why does Solarcentury matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Solarcentury?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Solarcentury.