AN inventor from Colden Common has reached the finals of the inaugural Powergen EnergyLab competition, a nationwide search to find the best green ideas.

Mark Rowe is now in the running to win the £50,000 first prize, to help put his solar panel design into production.

Mr Rowe, 36, who works as an analyst programmer at Hedge End, has already fought off stiff competition in the energy efficiency contest.

He has developed an ingenious concept - a new and improved version of solar panels, which builds on the existing and more conventional design.

Powergen said entries came from 100 hopefuls across the UK, including entrepreneurs and potting shed inventors, pensioners and students.

But Mr Rowe is disclosing few details at present, and will not patent his idea - which will involve making it public - until the product is ready to go on sale.

"Otherwise a guy in China will be making it before I've got mine to market," he said.

Mr Rowe has always been interested in renewable energy and he has been helping to reduce bills at Colden Common Community Centre by fitting low-energy light bulbs and by installing silver foil behind radiators.

He entered the competition after his interest was heightened by attending the Big Green Gathering lifestyle festival and going on a solar panel installation course.

"My design is only on paper, it's theoretical," he said.

"I haven't yet found a glitch but there could be issues with different conductances of materials.

"I don't have time to build a prototype to measure these things."

Instead, he plans to tap into existing university research in order to strengthen his presentation at the Tate.

Chairman of the judging panel is Dick Strawbridge, the presenter of BBC2's It's Not Easy Being Green.

The winner of Powergen EnergyLab will get the opportunity to work with LIFE-IC, a state-of-the-art support service for the development of clean energy technologies, and receive a package worth up to £50,000 to help get their idea into production.