Chinese manufacturer Growatt has revealed it is building up a base of accredited storage installers in the UK.
With energy storage still a comparably young industry, Growatt is working to educate both end users and installers of the capabilities and applications of the technology.
“We have been running a series of free training courses for our installers,” said Scott Feng, general manager of Growatt UK. “We want them to be able to install more efficiently and with no mistakes that the end-user then has to have corrected.”
So far Growatt has accredited more than 100 installers and has more than 3,000 systems installed across the UK.
Speaking to SPP at last month’s Solar & Storage Live, Feng said he was confident the UK market will continue to grow, but as with the PV industry before it, greater technical knowledge and support is required to back it up.
“The UK market is very promising. The cost of a storage system is falling drastically, again, like we saw with PV. At the same time, consumers’ electricity bills are only increasing. This will create a good economic case for solar in both the residential and the commercial segments,” said Feng, adding that the opportunity for retrofitting existing solar systems was yielding immediate business opportunities.
“We have already seen one subsidy-free solar and storage project in the UK and I expect that we will see more soon.”
Growatt, an established PV inverter manufacturer has been serving the energy storage market in the UK for three years and has recently introduced AC storage products, a hybrid inverter and high voltage systems.
Storage sector beset by lack of understanding
The efforts of Growatt and others to increase knowledge around storage within the market will be welcomed by the likes of DBS Energy, which has expressed concern over the lack of education and understanding among consumers within the battery storage sector.
Also speaking at Solar & Storage Live, representatives from the company claimed that while knowledge of inverters and other components is established, greater knowledge and product training is needed for battery systems.
Director Paul Anderson said: “It’s the battery that’s going to make the system work; it’s the heart of it. They need to have the basis knowledge.
“The sad thing about it is if something goes wrong they blame the battery whereas the fact is there are so many things that could have gone wrong. It’s always whoever supplied it that gets blamed.
“A lot of it just comes down to a lack of education in this sector and where these applications should get used.”