Dartford-based electrical wholesaler, Moss Electrical has revealed that it has secured over 100MW of solar PV contracts for the first quarter of 2015.

The contracts cover all scales of the UK PV industry with ground-mount and commercial projects and residential dwellings.

In 2013, the electrical wholesaler recognised the need to develop its solar PV offering in response to demand from its customers. As a result, Moss Electrical made significant R&D investment in 2013 to establish a portfolio of solar products.

Stefan Kemp, marketing manager at Moss Electrical explained the decision: “We are always looking for opportunities in different market verticals. We have the facilities to undertake large project works, requiring planning, logistics and stock commitment. When the sustainable sector reached ‘burn-out’ from a professional UK supply ability we sent Robert Moss off to investigate a disciplined procurement policy directly with manufacturers around the world. We felt that even if this led to nought, at least we could get him out of the office, which is a feat in itself!”

Robert Moss, managing director of Moss Electrical added: “Having been set this task, my first priority was to ascertain what volumes could be achieved by supplying solar products to our customer base. This was very small as most of our electrical contractors were shying away from this technology. We were supplying electrical products to one of our customers, and after a number of review meetings, we both agreed to progress a possible complete procurement for ground mounts, commercial roofs and residential installations.

“Sustain Energy Solutions provided the technical detail, training and commercial aspects of these installations and I was really impressed with their ability to install into the solar market at all levels. At the outset, they had invested heavily in Infrastructure, IT, Design and Personnel with very little sales transacted. This investment came to fruition and the rest is history. We are now supplying bracketry, electrical equipment, ground mounts, string, residential and commercial inverters, customer houses, transformer stations, and solar panels. We have distribution agreements with a number of factories whose relationship with us is very strong. We have set up a JV business in Shanghai, dealing with logistics and quality control. We have a very smooth operation.”

Chris Homer, commercial director, and lead for the logistic process in the UK, commented: “Robert has created a business within a business. The pressure that he has put us under is extreme but we have the infrastructure and personnel to cope with the extreme demand placed on us. As an example, last week we received 98x20ft containers. We coped with unloading and despatched the entire load to site within five working days. That takes some doing. Robert has more than doubled our turnover in one financial year.”

Homer added that two years ago the company had just completed a 50kWp solar array on one of its own flat roofs, this year the company has designed a system to install 9MW of PV across the company’s remaining roofs.