Sometimes every cloud doesn’t have a silver lining.

I recently visited Brighton, a town that has such a liberal attitude towards self expression that it allows artists to mark buildings with graffiti. Being of a disposition better suited towards the sort of government discipline seen in nations such as Singapore this was a painful experience for me, but alas I persevered nonetheless.

The UK is a world leader in offshore wind, but like many other countries in Europe, the solar sector has been little more than a disaster. In the case of Spain, the problem relates to the excessive subsidies provided to the consumer which meant that privately operated energy companies had to receive bailouts as they were running up immense losses.

In the case of the UK we are clearly at a meteorological disadvantage compared to our Southern European brethren given our mild climate and lack of sunlight. As a result for obvious reasons the solar industry has been focused on the South West.

Clearly the immense technical leaps made by the offshore wind industry has meant that investment has gone into the fast growth industry, with the most talented engineers drawn towards offshore wind.