Solar Media Staff

The week of the Intersolar trade show began with the roaring success of the ‘Doing Solar Business in the UK’ conference, organized by Photovoltaics International, the leading technical publisher in the solar industry. The conference was held at the Charles Hotel in Munich, drawing in over 130 delegates from all over the world.

According to a report published today (Wednesday 16 June 2010) by the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) the UK has the potential to reach zero carbon status by 2030. The report includes research input from thirteen universities, twelve research bodies and eight key industry players.

vogt group, advised by former Q-Cells CEO Anton Milner, has won the contract for the UK’s first solar photovoltaic power plant. The 5MW installation will be located on a 12.8 hectare site on a quarry in the southwest of England.

According to the recent study conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers – “On the brink of a bright future?” – the newly introduced feed-in tariff will increase the UK’s solar photovoltaic market five-fold in 2010 alone.

Proinso, the Navarra-based solar energy supplier, has now opened its UK office. Amongst other manufacturers Proinso will be distributing SMA, Ingeteam, Trina, REC, Mecasolar for the UK market.

The feed-in tariff is attracting all types of new entrants to the UK solar industry and not all of them are reputable. Do these companies truly understand our market conditions?

Suntech Power, the world's largest producer of crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules, has now received official certification under the UK Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) for its modules.

This blog is written by Martin Cotterell, the Managing Director of Sundog Energy. The title of this blog (Doing So(lar Business in the UK) is both Sundog Energy’s reason for existence and also the title of a forthcoming seminar in Munich (on the 8th June, immediately prior to the annual InterSolar trade show).

UK photovoltaic glass company, Romag, experienced an 11% fall in turnover to £9.1m in what the company describes as a “turbulent year.” However, since the announcement of the feed-in tariff, sales have began to pick up moving the specialist glass maker back into the black at the operating level, with profits of £301,000 in the first half to March 31 compared with a loss of £1.3m previously.

Now that the UK feed-in tariff is in place, UK farmers are set for some good news. As opposed to using their cropland for the installation of solar photovoltaic systems, they can use the often-large rooftop surfaces to generate renewable electricity.