Energy monitoring system producer, PassivSystems has joined Australian investment bank, Macquarie in providing free, monitored solar systems to residents across the UK.
PassivSystems’ ‘PassivPro’ energy monitoring system for homes is used to optimise solar energy generation, and will be installed with arrays as part of Macquarie’s free solar programme for thousands of UK homes.
Around 20,000-25,000 houses are to be fitted with free solar installations as part of the free PV programme. PassivSystems joins Freetricity and its installation partner, Styles & Wood energy, with Macquarie to fund the free residential solar installs.
The contract allows PassivSystems and Macquarie to jointly provide installations for solar panels with monitoring systems to 1,500 houses a month, with no cost to residents.
Macquarie is to fund the installation fees, so residential users can benefit from generating their own electricity.
The monitoring system provides up to date information on faults, radiance performance and generation data to provide analysis on the portfolio of arrays and maximising yield to benefit end users.
PassivPro also provides information on the feed-in-tariff (FiT) rate received by the solar systems, making the FiT process much more simple and easy, with quarterly updates to energy companies making it easier to process FiT payments.
The solar arrays will receive the government FiT for 20 years.
Colin Calder, CEO and founder of PassivSystems, said the way in which organisations monitor their solar PV systems “can make the difference between an investment fully realised and an investment exposed to unnecessary risk”.
Calder also said with energy bills rising and making headlines “this partnership with Macquarie will see us provide households with free rooftop PV and could not have come at a better time for consumers”.
“The rooftop PV systems managed on the PassivPro platform will provide consumers with green, sustainable energy and help to reduce their energy bills,” Calder added.
PassivPro monitoring systems already help provide data for 15,500 solar homes.
Using a similar financial mechanism to provide free solar systems to residents, housing contractor, Forrest also announced it agreed a £120 million residential solar PV scheme with Macquarie in December 2013. Systems will be installed over three years, aiming for well-located properties, targeting its social housing client base in the North of England, Midlands and Wales.