Commercial & Residential Solar

The Department for Energy and Climate Change has revealed that from December 12-18, a measly 812 systems were installed. The figure is down by 97 percent from last week’s incredible installation figures that saw 125.93MW of capacity installed, as installers rushed to beat the December 12 deadline.

Engineering Recommendation G83/1-1 is a key document for the solar PV industry, as it sets the requirements for the connection of PV systems (of up to 16A per phase), to the distribution network. G83/1 addresses all technical aspects of the connection process from system functionality to site commissioning and was first published in 2002, with a revised version issued in 2008. Last week, the Distribution Code Review Panel (DCRP) approved the draft of ER G83/2 for public consultation.

The BBC has reported that Dundee council may have to scrap its plan to install solar panels on all suitable council-owned properties.

As each and every one of you is painfully aware, on October 31 this year the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) announced Phase 1 of its consultation on feed-in tariffs, which revealed a 50 percent reduction to the current incentive rates for solar photovoltaics. While most of the post-consultation coverage focused on these cuts, a lot of our readers have also expressed concern over the new potential EPC requirements.

The Local Government Association (LGA) has warned that thousands of fuel-poor families living in social housing will face steeper electricity bills as a result of cuts to the feed-in tariff.

Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) is to open a state-of-the-art training and operational facility for the renewable energy sector in Treforest, Wales. The £7 million SWALEC Smart Energy Centre, which has received £2 million in business support from the Welsh Government, is expected to create 250 new jobs in South Wales.

Bisol Group, one of Europe’s largest producers of solar modules, has received a salt mist corrosion certificate for all its solar photovoltaic modules, in accordance with the IEC 61701 standard.

Sanyo Component Europe, a subsidiary of Sanyo Electric, has revealed that as of April next year the branding of its well-known HIT1 solar modules will change from Sanyo to Panasonic. The move comes as part of a wider strategic move to consolidate branding across multiple areas under the Panasonic brand.

After Solar Power Portal last week reported that PV installations in the UK had begun to tail off, the latest DECC data reveals that a total of 83.121MW was added to the MCS database last week…

Bavarian solar specialist Antaris Solar has been awarded accreditation under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) for its range of mono- and polycrystalline modules.