Tigo smart modules available in UK after Upsolar partners with Ecolution Renewables

Good news for the green tech aficionados in the United Kingdom, after Upsolar, a well known company in the PV technology solutions, founded in Hong Kong by Zhe Jiang in 2006 and rapidly expanded throughout the world, partnered with the distribution company Ecolution Renewables, also a very well known solar PV installer. After the joint venture, the smart modules powered by Tigo Energy technology will be available to customers in the United Kingdom.

Tigo Energy designs the best solar optimisers, with the SmartModule technology, which is a  patented impedance matching technology enabling 25% more power density and efficiency on any roof or utility project, uneven string lengths and different orientations. Installers and system owners achieve the highest ROI by increasing energy production and maximum system up-time for new systems and retrofits, and the smart modules enhance the flexibility of the whole system, makes them easier to install and also optimizes the  costs/benefits.

The Photo Voltaic systems using this high tech, smart modules, also have real time monitoring capabilities, and the customers are able to visualize and analyse performance data at each and everyone of the modules,  via Tigo Energy's in-house module-level monitoring software and applications.

As Mr. Richard Jenkins, Managing Director for Ecolution Renewables told us:

“Upsolar is known for its meticulous attention to product quality and customer service—characteristics we hold in high esteem for both our partners and ourselves,”

“We’re proud to offer our customers Upsolar’s full product suite, including smart modules, as we strive to make solar power available to all.”

For more information and news about solar energies in the UK, you may visit here anytime:  

http://www.solar-energy.co.uk/

Milford Haven Port Authority Granted Planning Permit for 5 MW Solar Park

The Milford Haven Port Authority just obtained the planning permission for the usual twenty five years term in order to build the proposed 5 MW photo voltaic installation, as the Pembrokeshire County Council approved without objections the solar project yesterday.

Milford Haven Port Authority is the manager of the Milford Haven Port, the most important port and the biggest in Wales, applied for the permit since September 2012.

The solar installation will require 10 ha of land and the location will be at Liddeston Ridge in Milfor Haven. There will be required over 20 000 solar panels for the job, each and every one of them is capable of producing up to 250 watts. The photo voltaic panels will be installed on aluminium mounting structures and the timetable for the project is expected  to take three months since the project receives the green light.

A spokesperson for the local authorities told us :

 “There are still commercial considerations to be considered including the cost of the connection to the grid, but I would say that its positive at present and I expect the project move to construction in 2013.”

When the project will be completed and connected to the national power grid, it will be able to produce 5GWh of solar energy every year.

This solar project is one of the latest steps in the local authority's renewable energy plan, the previous ones already managed to  install 2500 solar panels on buildings in Milford Marina and Pembroke Port.

For more information and news about solar energies in the UK, you may visit here anytime:  

http://www.solar-energy.co.uk/

Mr. Stephen Lovegrove is the New Permanent Secretary at DECC

The Department for Energy and Climate Change building in Whitehall. 

Even if "change ain't good", to paraphrase the classics, the Department for Energy and Climate Change has appointed a brand new permanent secretary, enters Mr. Stephen Lovegrove, ladies and gentlemen.

Mr. Lovegrove served until now as the Chief Executive of the Shareholder  Executive, and now he will replaced the former DECC permanent secretary, Moria Wallace, who left the building in October 2012.

Initially, Mr. David Kennedy,   the current Chief Executive of the Committee on Climate Change was appointed for the job, but the Prime Minister intervened, this move created some controversy as the Prime Minister blocked the appointment of Mr. Kennedy, as the new permanent secretary at the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

Mr. Kennedy's appointment as the new permanent secretary at DECC was strongly supported by senior civil servants and some of the ministers, but the Prime Minister, Mr. Cameron had other ideas in mind, he stated that the permanent secretary at DECC must be a person with serious corporate experience in his resume.

Exits Mr. Kennedy, enters Lovegrove, who was the head of the European media team of Deutsche Bank for ten years in a row (Deutsche Bank is one of the biggest players in the financial market today),  before joining the Shareholder Executive position.

He also had a position as a board member of the The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in the summer of 2012.

Mr. Ed Davey made the following remark about the appointment of Mr. Lovegrove as the new permanent secretary at the Department for Energy and Climate Change:

 “We need to attract billions in private sector investment to build new power stations and to upgrade the energy efficiency of the nation’s homes.  Stephen and I worked together for nearly two years when I was a Minister at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, not least on the reform of Royal Mail, so I know he will be a huge asset to DECC.”

For more information and news about solar energies in the UK, you may visit here anytime:  

http://www.solar-energy.co.uk/

UK's Largest Solar Farm Will Be Developed by Science Museum and Swindon Council

There are certain plans from the Science Museum to install the biggest solar farm in the United Kingdom, at its object store in Wroughton, Wiltshire.

 If the project gets the required approval, it will become the biggest solar array in the country, overtaking the current largest solar farm in the United Kingdom, which is the Lark's Energy proposed 32 MW solar park at Wymeswold Airfield, in Leicestershire.

 The Science Museum intends to install a 40 MW solar array on 80 ha of land at its Wroughton facility, working closely with Swindon Commercial Services, a company which is the property of Swindon Borough Council.

The well known Science Museum, located in London, can only make available to the general public just a small fraction of its collection at one time, for storing the entire collection they use the now obsolete airfield in Wroughton. The project will install over 160 000 photo voltaic modules across the airfield's land and also will allow the group to be as green as it gets, effectively carbon neutral, at least that's what the Science Museum predicts, regarding their large scale solar installation.

The Wroughton campus is a minor consumer of electricity, yet the Kensington base of the museum is a heavy  power user, and Mr. Matt Moore, the Sustainability Manager for the Science Museum told us that the solar installation will showcase British engineering capabilities.

Mr. James Owen, Swindon Commercial Services’ Project Manger, stated that out of service airfield at Wroughton  was an excellent location for developing a solar park, thanks to the combination of light industrial and low quality  agricultural land, and the public will be consulted about the project for the first time on January 26, the current year.

 Mr. Owen has high hopes for the local community to embrace the high tech development in the near future, he told us:

 “There’s no point in it being one way; I want people to support the park. The land will stay in agricultural use: currently it is used for grazing sheep and I want to keep it that way.”



Actually, Mr. Owen has a surprise for the local farmers, as he intends to graze a local breed, the very rare Cotswolds sheep on the land, a long forgotten sight to the local community.
 This breed of sheep is farmed for the wool, not for the meat and Mr. Owen's plan is to use the wool produced from the Cotswolds as insulation for the local residences.

Regarding the large scale solar market, Mr. Owen thinks that a few projects made compromises on quality, in order to be able to connect to the grid, to meet the time deadlines, yet he is pretty sure that the troubles of the solar industry are now a thing of the past, he told us confidently:


“With the new RO rates up till 2017 you will be left with a sustainable return on investment which will get rid of dubious suit-wearers from the City that don’t know anything and want too much return – leaving the rest of us to develop a sustainable, sensible part of the UK energy mix.”

  “I think the industry needs sensible investors looking for sensible returns on a par, or better than, a government bond.”


For more information and news about solar energies in the UK, you may visit here anytime:  

http://www.solar-energy.co.uk/

Green Deal Just Added 15 New Measures

The full launch of Green Deal is near the corner and is rapidly approaching, hence the Department for Energy and Climate Change also known as DECC made an announcement, regarding the list of eligible measures.

The list which initially contained 30 measures now has 45, so much for bureaucracy, so DEEC, after extensive consultation, included them in the scheme. You may take a closer look at the full document here .

 In January of 2013 we are expecting the publication of the final draft of  the PAS 2030 specification, regarding the installation process, the process management and service provision. Let's take a closer look:


Energy efficiency measures covered in PAS 2030:2012

• Condensing boilers, natural gas-fired and liquefied petroleum gas-fired (domestic and non-domestic)
• Condensing boilers, oil-fired (domestic and non-domestic)
• Heating controls
• Under-floor heating
• Flue-gas recovery devices
• Gas-fired warm-air heating systems (domestic and non-domestic)
• Electric storage heaters (domestic and non-domestic)
• Cavity wall insulation
• Loft insulation
• Pitched roof insulation
• Flat roof insulation
• Internal wall insulation
• External wall insulation
• Hybrid wall insulation
• Draught proofing
• Floor insulation
• Heating system insulation (pipes and cylinders)
• Energy efficient glazing and doors
• Lighting fittings
• Lighting controls (non-domestic)
• Ground and air source heat pumps
• Solar thermal
• Solar PV
• Biomass boilers
• Micro-combined heat and power (CHP)
• Micro- and small-scale wind turbine systems

 Quoting from the document, these are the new measures which are to be eligible in the future, under the Green Deal :

• Chillers
• Duct Insulation
• HVAC Controls
• Hot Water Showers
• Hot Water Systems
• Hot Water Taps
• Roof Lights, Lamps and Luminaires
• Radiant Heating
• Sealing improvements
• Solar blinds, shutters and shading devices
• Transpired Solar Collectors
• Variable speed drives for fans and pumps
• Water Source Heat Pumps

 When the National Solar Centre was launched recently, as I covered it in a previous post on my blog,the Energy and Climate Change Minister, Mr. Greg Barker asked the solar industry leaders to operate outside its silo and, let me quote, "use the Green deal to market solar PV as an energy saving option”.

 The Green Deal is the most important policy of the United Kingdom's coalition government and it will be supported in the near future with great aplomb, with the new Green Deal cashback scheme, a 2.9 million pounds  marketing budget and the full attention of the UK's Prime Minister, Mr. Cameron.

 Of course, there are critics and skeptics of the Green Deal project, they are doubting that the scheme will persuade the general public to engage with energy efficiency.

For more information and news about solar energies in the UK, you may visit here anytime:  

http://www.solar-energy.co.uk/

£46 Million Announced by DECC Supporting 132 Local Energy Projects

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) just made a lot of business people happy, as they announced that over 130 energy schemes will benefit from a share of the 46 million pounds, as they are trying to help reduce fuel poverty, increase energy efficiency and to help boost collective switching.

Both the local communities and third party organizations had been invited to bid for funding under three separate energy schemes. The first project will try to address the fuel poverty issue, by helping the local communities  to build and install more effective central heating systems and also help them insulate the households of the most vulnerable local residents.

The second scheme will try to improve the  energy efficiency for all the residents, not just the most vulnerable ones, with the help of the local authorities, with money drawn to finance the Green Deal project, which will help to identify where the energy savings are to be made. The Department for Energy and Climate Change received some criticism regarding the initial cost of the Green Deal will discourage many of its potential clients.

 In the end, the competition aimed to help encourage local authorities and local businesses, among with the third sector organizations to initiate collective groups to buy energy in their local areas, the whole concept of collective switching is to help clients to negotiate better deals and tariffs from the energy producers and suppliers.

 The total sum allocated to these projects is in amount of  £46 million and it will be split as it follows:  £31million will help reduce the fuel poverty for the must vulnerable households, £10 million will be used to help boost the Green Deal and £5 million will be used to set up collective switching schemes.

 An ample comment regarding the issue was made by Mr. Ed Davey, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary:


“We need to find new ways to help people with their energy bills, working with communities and councils across the country.
“The projects we are funding will help people save energy and save money: helping the most vulnerable to heat their homes, getting the Green Deal market up and running and encouraging people to switch energy suppliers to get their bills down.
“This £46million will help local councils across England upgrade inefficient heating kit as well as creating demand for and installing insulation under the Green Deal in homes across their local areas. 
“Funding will also be used to drive forward collective purchasing and switching initiatives at a local level, helping consumers get a better deal on their energy bills.  I am delighted so many organisations want to run new co-operative schemes to help people, especially the fuel poor, to get the best deals in the market."

For more information and news about solar energies in the UK, you may visit here anytime:  

http://www.solar-energy.co.uk/

BNRG Renewables will begin planning 18 Megawatt solar park

The well known Irish company, BNRG Renewables is a Solar PV project development company with headquarters in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in Dublin and offices in Cheltenham, UK; and Miami, USA. The company has extensive experience in solar PV projects across Europe and the United Kingdom, they engage with local expertise and professionals in order to meet the customers demands, together with their experienced in house teams.

Since 2007 BNRG has developed a substantial pipeline of Solar Photovoltaic Projects in The UK, Bulgaria and Greece and is currently developing projects in the Caribbean Basin.

Between 2012 and 2013 the company will be developing over 30MW of solar PV plants in The UK. In Bulgaria, the Company sold over 10MW of projects to a Bulgarian investment group in early 2012. In the UK, BNRG commissioned and sold over 6 MW in early 2012.

 And now, they just obtained a 25 year planning permission from Shepway District Council's Development Control Committee, in order to build a 18 Megawatt solar park in New Romney, Kent.

 The large scale project will be raised on almost 50 hectares of land at Sycamore Farm, it will involve over 73 000 solar panels, every panel with a 245 watts capacity. Keep in mind that BRNG Renewables has not yet contracted a supplier for the solar modules yet.

Not everybody from Kent was happy with the new solar installation, the local branch of national countryside body, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, sent an objection letter from Protect Kent, in order to stop the project in its tracks.

BNR Renewables made the following comment, after they received the 25 years planning permission for their solar park:

"We are very pleased with the decision made by Shepway District Council's Development Control committee for this site.

"We have worked proactively to incorporate feedback from stakeholders and local residents into our plans and have had positive feedback on the application as a result, with fewer than 10 letters of objection. We remain committed to ensuring that as well as generating a significant amount of renewable energy, this project will also be well-screened and will increase local biodiversity.

"We hope to commence construction in the near future and will remain available to local residents throughout the construction period.”

For more information and news about solar energies in the UK, you may visit here anytime: 

http://www.solar-energy.co.uk/

The Suppliers of Photo Voltaic Panels in UK Prepare for Large Scale Demand Surge

The major chains of photo voltaic panels  in the United Kingdom received the news about the changes in RO rates starting in the April of 2013 with great interest, as they may lead to a very possible increase in their revenues, also the suppliers of balance-of-sytems (BoS) components  in the market are bursting with joy for the Q1' 2013 possible windfall.

 Solarbuzz , an important renewable market  analyst, drew a report calld UK PV Market Entry Guide:New Revenue Opportunities, according to the newly published document, a very important pipeline of hundreds, even thousands of megawatts of large scale, ground mounted renewable technology infrastructure was developed in 2012. And the expected reduction to the RO rate will determine the developers to continue the investments in the solar energy/renewable sector, thus leading to a significant surge in demand for the cheapest materials off-the-shelf.

 The president of Solarbuzz, Mr. Finlay Colville presented the situation in the following terms:

“Explosive PV growth in 2011 and 2012 was dominated by residential installations benefitted by attractive feed-in-tariffs. However, the focus at the start of 2013 will change rapidly to megawatt-scale ground-mount installations as installers seek to beat the end-of-March cut off deadline.”

And the market analyst Solarbuzz predicted that the large scale push will determine the United Kingdom solar panel market to go over 1.6 gigawatts  in 2013. Keep in mind that the UK's photo voltaic market grew by over 94% in terms of capacity installed in just 2 years, the last two actually.

 The impressive growth was fueled by the United Kingdom's  solar policies, mainly the solar support mechanism called FiT&RO, it was  so efficient  that the UK entered the top 10 most reliable global photo voltaic markets in both 2011 and 2012.

 Due to the fact that the UK market, according to Solarbuzz analysts, has a lower financial risk than other PV markets, it is expected for many major PV manufacturers and suppliers to plan long term strategies for the United Kingdom renewable sector.

 Solarbuzz  also said about the capacity of the UK's market potential to even outperform the already very optimistic predictions for 2013, as Mr. Coleville said :


“Energy costs remain a highly emotive issue within the UK. Consumers continue to prioritise investments to hedge against inevitable rising electricity prices. So long as PV system pricing continues to decline, there is a strong possibility that the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s Impact Assessment goal of 22 GW by 2020 can be reached.”

Mr. Coleville also told us that the United Kingdom's photo voltaic market is no longer an emerging market, we can talk about an established one,and the companies playing in the renewable field will have to adjust their strategies  in order to cope with the leading downstream installers  and the developing projects the future will bring.

 To quote Mr. Coleville:

  “By the middle of 2012, there were more than 4,000 certified PV installers in the UK,” “This made it very difficult for overseas PV suppliers to decide which companies to forge long-term supply relationships with. The growth of the ground-mount segment will assist in filtering down the list of downstream survivors, with many of these companies participating in the Q1’13 demand pull over the next few months.”


You must realise that the NPD Solarbuzz UK PV Market Entry Guide: New Revenue Opportunities report is based on an exhaustive data base in which over 100 of the leading companies  are listed and ranked across a range of categories.

 For more information and news about solar energies in the UK, you may visit here anytime: 

http://www.solar-energy.co.uk/

 

 

Nationwide Solar Finished Installing 78kWp in Manchester and Stockport

 Nationwide Solar is a well known installer of Photo Voltaic systems across the United Kingdom, as a group they have installed over 10 000 domestic and commercial solar powered systems and they are one of the most experienced operators on the UK renewable energy market.

 Recently, they just finished installing a 78 kWp solar installation for Hilti,  a global leader of value-added, top-quality products for professional customers in the construction and building maintenance industries.

 Hilti has installed PV arrays at its head office in Manchester and in Stockport, where they have a logistics and training centre.
 The project consisted of over  330 JA PV panels, using Hilti's own Photo Voltaic mounting systems (called MSP for the techies) and the project was supervised by the Hilti's engineering design team, so it was kind of a joint effort.

 Everything was done to optimize the performance of the installation, both by the experts from Natiowide Solar and the structural consultants from Hilti, they were focusing on the number of south facing panels, which provide the most sun energy. 

 Both systems were installed in just three days and they expect to recoup the investment in about 10 years from now.

 The managing director from Nationwide Solar, Mr. Russ Cowan, stated:

 “Despite the Government’s reduction of feed-in tariffs, we are finding that in the vast majority of cases we are able to ensure that PV systems installed now are just as viable as before.

“This is especially true of commercial installations in the 50-250kW range such as Hilti’s and it is a vote of confidence in the revised economics of the technology that the company has undertaken this project.”

 

For more information and news about solar energies in the UK, you may visit here anytime: 

http://www.solar-energy.co.uk/

SMA UK Just Launched Sunny View Domestic Monitoring Device For Solar Power

If you never heared about SMA Solar UK, well, this is a good time to find out about this company which operates from Milton Keynes and specializes in off-grid inverters for solar power/wind power installations, among other things. They are the global leader in the PV market for solar inverters, a very important component of all PV plants, with a sale figure of  €1.7 billion in 2011. The company is based in
Niestetal, near Kassel, Germany and employs more than 5500 people world wide.

Recently, they launched on the United Kingdom domestic market a new gadget, a domestic solar monitoring device, also knowns as the Sunny View, the next generation solar yield monitoring device for domestic plants, as they advertise it.


 The Sunny View gizomo works via Bluetooth technology used to communicate  with up to 12 inverters for displaying accurate and reliable data on their solar yield.


 With this new gizmo, the solar power end-users can now keep track of their installations in real time and they can even receive news updates or weather reports with the help of this high tech real-time monitoring device from SMA Solar UK.


 This Sunny View gizmo is a portable device that features a 5 inches wide touch screen display on which you can see in real time your electricity yield and also a CO2 avoidance graph, allowing you to smartly control your energy consumption at any time.

 The device also has a SD card slot which stores the retrieved data from the invertors via Bluetooth for further, more detailed analysis.



Highlights of the Sunny View include the following:

• Large 5” easy-to-read colour touchscreen.
• Clear display of all key plant data.
• Can communicate with up to 12 inverters via Bluetooth technology.
• Audio and visual alarm in case of plant failure.
• WLAN interface for display of online data.
• Data archiving and back-up via SD card.


Mr. Jan Van Laetham, the Managind Director at SMA UK made the following comment:

“SMA are committed to setting new standards in intelligent monitoring solutions for domestic solar PV systems. We understand the ever-changing needs of end-users and our new products reflect this keeping SMA firmly at the forefront of solar PV innovation”.

SMA Solar UK Ltd
Unit 2B, Gemini Building
Sunrise Parkway
Linford Wood
Milton Keynes  MK14 6NP 
  

 For more information and news about solar energies in the UK, you may visit here anytime: 

http://www.solar-energy.co.uk/

New Feed In Tariffs Rates Come Into Play

Big news folks, we have new feed in tariffs rates applicable for solar PV technology, effective as of 2 November 2012. This information was confirmed by Ofgem and you can see them at the end of the article.

 The CEO of Freetricity made a strong point against the tri-monthly degression model enforced by the UK  Government, he stated that:

“With only around 1000 solar installs being done across the whole of the UK in the first three weeks of August  - two per installer company - and a solar industry on its knees,  a further digression of the FiT programme in November will just heap more misery on the green energy sector .

"This at a time when Government are wanting to promote the green deal, desperately need economic growth and job creation and are encouraging businesses like Freetricity to export our knowledge and expertise to new markets. In order to flourish, the industry needs German and American style tangible long term consistent support.”

If you take a look at the data you will see that the new rates for the residential FiT are insignificantly cut, just over half a pence, from  15.44p/kWh from 16p/kWh and the commercial Feed in Tariff was cut with a mere (almost) half a penny,  to 13.1p/kWh from 13.5p/kWh, meantime for the big businesses the tariffs remained unchanged.

 But due to the rising costs of electricity in the recent months, even these small cuts in the Feed In Tariff may create a come back for investments on solar photovoltaic projects, at least that's what Dr. Chris Jardine, the Tech Director at Photovoltaic installer Joju Solar hopes:

“We’ve seen a 3.5% cut in feed-in-tariffs on residential and small commercial buildings. But at the same time, we’ve seeing electricity prices rise by as much as 10 per cent in October which more than outweighs the cut in feed-in-tariffs and makes the return on investment from solar projects higher than it was this time last month.”

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) revealed in October this year the quarterly energy statistics which shows that installations under the feed-in tariff (FiT) have reached 1.3GW across the UK, and the solar installed power under the FiT scheme in the first 9 months of 2012 reached 747.586MW .

You can see the full document from Ofgem here.

For more information and news about solar energies in the UK, you may visit here anytime: 

http://www.solar-energy.co.uk/

Description	FiT rate p/kWh
0-4kW	15.44
>4-10kW	13.99
>10-50kW	13.03
>50-100kW	11.50
>100-150kW	11.50
>150-250kW	11.00
>250kW-5MW	7.10
Stand-alone	7.10
Export tariff	4.50