Energy storage-themed sessions at Solar Energy UK were extremely well attended and discussions were by all accounts lively and fascinating. Andy Colthorpe took the opportunity to go into some of the topics in more depth with some of the speakers.
Sharp, ABB, SMA and Bosch are among the big names readying new energy storage products for the UK PV market. Andy Colthorpe caught up with them at the Solar Energy UK show to find out what tech fits best for the UK’s nascent storage sector.
The head of community energy at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said yesterday that the government wants to see an “upsurge” in community generated energy projects, while acknowledging serious barriers exist in policy.
Suntech’s parent company Shunfeng and its partner Greenfield Solar International have signed youmex to finance the PV project pipeline they are developing in the UK.
A new report funded by the fuel cell industry claims that over five million fuel cell smart power units could be installed in the UK by 2030, driving a “revolution” in distributed energy.
The fate of the UK’s PV market over the next five years is likely to be determined to a large extent by a budget announcement which is expected by October, according to analyst Finlay Colville of NPD Solarbuzz.
Deutsche Bank has arranged a deal with Conergy, worth US$60 million (~£35 million), to allow the downstream solar company to expand the capacity of its forthcoming projects by as much as 400MWp.
Chinese thin-film manufacturer Hanergy and iconic British sports car maker Aston Martin are working on a joint R&D initiative looking at the use of solar in performance vehicles.
