Opinions

Used a trial version of the new Seaward Solar PV100 test instrument for real, for the first time today. We were testing the latest strings of glass-glass PV modules to be installed on the roof of one of our larger London projects.

The sizing an inverter for a solar PV system is influenced by a number of factors, including…

As we all try and pick ourselves back up from recent knockbacks in the UK’s renewable energy sector, it’s worrying to find out that we missed our renewable energy target for 2010 by 3.5%. As a result, the levels of confidence we have in reaching the much larger, more daunting target set for 2020 are plummeting by the second.

Engineering Recommendation G83 – Recommendations for the Connection of small-scale embedded generators (up to 16A per phase) in parallel with public Low-voltage distribution networks. ER G83 is about to be reviewed and there is an opportunity for the solar PV industry to feed in their comments to this process. I will be sitting on the review committee – and will feed in comments from both Sundog Energy and also the wider PV industry as a REA-STA representative.

Well actually we are not at this stage – in fact we are a long way from this stage, but if the feed in tariff gets broken then this is what we face.

One aspect of the fast-track feed-in tariff review that has been niggling away at me for weeks is Government’s constant justification that cuts were needed to stop “large-scale solar farms soaking up the cash,” when rooftop systems were also taking the hit. In fact, as revealed today, the Government has had to cancel its own plans as a result of this ridiculous banding.

I have had many meetings in recent weeks with DECC / Ministers and Officials. The new FIT’s team comprises of Rachel Solomon-Williams and Alisdair Grainger and they are a breath of fresh air to deal with.

Meeting today with the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s Head of the Feed-in Tariff Review, Rachel Solomon Williams, I was able to dig out a few exclusives. Speaking out in defence against the review, Rachel faced a lot of difficult questions in response to the industry’s anger at the recent policy u-turn.

While the FiT review is targeted at large scale installations, the reclassification of solar projects over 50kW as ‘large scale’ threatens community schemes too. The question for Government, therefore, is at what scale can community energy projects succeed?

Since the fast track review bombshell was dropped last week I have been thinking about what kind of implications this will have on the UK solar industry as a whole. So, in the wake of the FiT disaster I have been catching up with globally successful companies to find out what happens if they decide that the UK is a no-go area.