Only five pitched roof mounting systems MCS 012 compliant

Solar Power Portal has learnt that just five pitched roof mounting systems for solar PV are currently listed on the Microgeneration Certification Scheme’s (MCS) register, ahead of MCS 012’s introduction in March 2014.

From March next year, in order to comply with MCS and claim the feed-in tariff, a PV system on a pitched roof will need to use MCS005 listed modules, an MCS012 listed mounting system and be installed by an MCS certified installer.

However – as of December 11, 2013 – only five pitched roof mounting products have been certified. Of the five products approved, three have been issued to Solarcentury, one to Clenergy and one to IRFTS.  

Solarcentury’s director of marketing Susannah Wood told Solar Power Portal that the lack of certified products could become a worry for the industry. She said: “Looking at the MCS database there are over 3,000 approved installers, nearly 12,000 modules and five approved mounting systems. So if you are a house builder and are specifying something for April, at the moment there are only five systems that you can use.

“There is a piece of work that needs to be done in the next few months for the other manufacturers to get their mounting systems through because otherwise people won’t be getting the feed-in tariff. It would be a shame if that resulted in some sort of blip; it’s important for the industry that these certifications start to come through.”  

Commenting on the certification process, Wood explained that it can turn into a lengthy affair, she said: “I believe a lot of them are in testing at the moment but they have to get through that and out the other end. We know from our own experience that the process is quite rigorous, as it should be.

“It takes quite a lot of time. If you do it properly you have to test your mounting system with lots of different tile types, module thickness, inclinations – you have to be very rigorous about it, otherwise you will get quite a caveated accreditation.”

Speaking to Solar Power Portal, Gemserv explained that it could not reveal how many products were currently undergoing the certification process as the information was confidential.

The products currently certified with MCS012 are: Clenergy’s PV-ez Rack SolarRoof Pro, IRFTS’s Easy Roof Evolution L1 (when used to mount a Jinko JKM250 Poly PV panel) and Solarcentury’s C21e Tile M50 S38, C21e Slate M50 S39 & C21e Plain Tile M50 S39.