Guest Blog

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

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.

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.

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?

The Government’s review of the feed-in tariffs is released this week and is awaited with a mixture of intrigue and dread. The potential effects on the fledgling solar industry in the UK have been well documented on these pages, but few seem to think that they will be positive.

If you have any type of interest in solar power you may be thinking that it is the renewable energy poster boy for the coming decade. The recent announcement of the Government review on the feed-in tariff scheme however threatens to cast a shadow over the role of solar in the UK.

This article was co-written by Dr. Kevin Hard, Managing Director of EvoEnergy and Tom Craig, Solar PV Specialist, also at EvoEnergy. EvoEnergy prides itself on being in tune with the market and informing our customers of any market changes and opportunities that we see or think might happen.  We believe and trust the technology; on top of this the new Feed-in Tariff (FIT) incentive has made investing in Solar PV a sound financial investment.    The recent press coverage of ‘solar for free’ has driven interest in the concept through the roof, and subsequently this has led to floods of enquiries to us.  The idea of free solar may sound great, but is this the right way to go?  Should you leave your own money in the bank and get solar for free, or should you stump up yourself with the aim of keeping the FIT money? Or should you finance your purchase with money from the bank?

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).

This is both Sundog Energy’s reason for existence and also the title of a forthcoming one day seminar in Munich (on the 8th June, immediately prior to the annual InterSolar trade show).