News

Three solar schemes are to be implemented on the Isle of Wight, at land in Blackwater, Newchurch and Porchfield. Two of the plants will be developed by German company Kronos, while the third is to be constructed by new Island firm, Island Energy. All three projects are expected to be complete by the summer of 2011.

German solar pioneer Wagner & Co has joined forces with one of the leading suppliers of photovoltaic equipment in southern England, AC Solartechnic. The new joint venture, named Wagner Solar UK, will do business beginning in November from AC Solartechnic´s present site in Sidlesham, near Chichester, West Sussex.

Since the Government’s announcement last week in the Spending Review that the feed-in tariff would not be cut, many companies have been given the green light for their UK solar plans. Free home solar company A Shade Greener is no exception.

Greenfield Holdings was retained through RG Group Ltd, one of Sainsbury`s main contractors to source and deliver a solar system which was to be installed onto the roof at the Chingford Supermarket. The GHL team was made up of Active Technologies, who designed and manufactured the aluminum framing system for the arrays, Q Design Consultants that handled the electrical design and they also arranged the G59 submission to EDF and RoofTech which handled the installation of the frames and the photovoltaic panels. They also arranged the electrical engineers to wire the whole system together – Natural Watt and Energy ICT  – who provided the energy monitoring equipment. The energy metre was supplied by Elsevier while the solar panels were provided by Romag Holdings Plc and the inverters were supplied by Fronius.

Since the news that the incentives for solar power will be left alone for the time being, the industry’s response has been overwhelmingly positive.  Dave Sowden, Chief Executive of the Micropower Council said, “This news marks the start of a true Citizens’ Energy Revolution. The Government has sent a clear signal to homes, businesses and investors that the UK Microgeneration sector is now well and truly open for business."

As the Solar Power Portal team came into the office this morning there were smiles on faces in the wake of George Osborne’s day of axe wielding drama. This, I suspect, is not the scene in many other buildings across London. It seems almost miraculous that after what is being labelled the ‘biggest round of cutbacks in generations’ the solar feed-in tariff escaped unscathed – for now at least.

Chancellor George Osborne stood up in the House of Commons at 12.30pm today to detail the coalition government's Comprehensive Spending review.Finally, after a long and tedious wait, we finally know what lies in the future for solar feed-in tariffs in the UK.

Taking on the task of spreading the word of the UK’s potential in the solar market, Solar Power UK organised the hugely successful conference on October 18th and 19th 2010. The conference, the theme of which was “Enabling the UK Solar Market for 2011”, drew over 450 delegates from all facets of the solar PV industry, including installers, suppliers and manufacturers, investment companies and members of the media.

An early mover in the UK utility-scale solar project development sector is German-based Vogt Solar, which has set-out plans for a 5MW power plant on farmland near Bourn, Cambridge.

A 5MW solar power plant, adjacent to Newquay Cornwall Airport that would owned by the council, could get the go ahead at a full-council meeting to be held next week.