Blogs

Engineering Recommendation G83/1-1 is a key document for the solar PV industry, as it sets the requirements for the connection of PV systems (of up to 16A per phase), to the distribution network. G83/1 addresses all technical aspects of the connection process from system functionality to site commissioning and was first published in 2002, with a revised version issued in 2008. Last week, the Distribution Code Review Panel (DCRP) approved the draft of ER G83/2 for public consultation.

As each and every one of you is painfully aware, on October 31 this year the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) announced Phase 1 of its consultation on feed-in tariffs, which revealed a 50 percent reduction to the current incentive rates for solar photovoltaics. While most of the post-consultation coverage focused on these cuts, a lot of our readers have also expressed concern over the new potential EPC requirements.

Arc Faults are once again on the agenda at the IEC PV meeting this week. Arc faults in a PV system have the potential to cause a fire – and, sadly, there are a number of documented cases around the world where this has occurred. In considering the issue, three categories of arcs need to be addressed…

Having spent the last few weeks on roofs installing, I am now swapping screwdriver for laptop and heading to an IEC PV standards meeting in Switzerland.

The Government, led by the DECC and Greg Barker, has consistently pushed the message that in these desperate fiscal times it is the best hope to create a sustainable solar industry in the UK. I wonder is it all rhetoric or will the Minister deliver on his promises?

The opposition day defeat has left the solar industry with little option but to brace itself and prepare for the introduction of the new 21p/kWh rate proposed by the Government.

Any ideas of properly determining how quick the TrinaMount system really is has been dashed by the weather this week. Thanks to very high winds, it’s been a real stop-start operation … just too dangerous to handle the PV modules at times.

Thanks to the December 12th FIT deadline its all hands to the pump here – and I am back on the tools for a few weeks. This week’s project is a 50kWp installation on the metal roof of a local auction mart.

Now we have all got over the shock announcement of potential changes to the FiT some people in the industry are saying we should just get on and make the 21p work.

BBC’s panorama show on Monday night was billed as an investigation into the truth behind the UK's rocketing energy bills. Surely a rational, unbiased report from the BBC’s well-respected Panorama show would present the benefits of solar PV and other renewable energies to the wider public, while sensibly explaining the implicit costs to the consumer of supporting such technologies – wouldn’t it?