Commercial & Residential Solar

Covers Builders Merchants is set to install Azur Solar solutions across the UK after successfully completing trial projects at six of its branches in Southern England. The installations at the Covers Home Ideas store, the Covers Trade Centre at Chichester and the depots at Aldershot, Bognor, Gosport, and Portsmouth will now be used as reference sites.

According to Inside Housing, Durham County Council is, like many others, considering the installation of photovoltaic panels on 3,000 of its homes. The plans are aimed at reducing fuel poverty in the area while cutting residents carbon footprint and energy bills.

Yorkshire-based free solar company, A Shade Greener has reportedly secured backing from a major commercial finance provider in order to expand its rapidly-growing business.

Crompton Solar has launched a fully-tested plug and play switching system, designed to making it easier and more time efficient for solar installers to complete the fiddly wiring process to a high standard. The robust lightweight Combi-Switch, available in either plastic or steel casing, will simply plug in, saving up to 90 minutes on site per installation.

With a total capacity of 10MWp, vogt solar has connected its first seven solar photovoltaic power plants ahead of the August 1 feed-in tariff deadline.

In one of Scotland’s largest solar power projects, Oatridge College in West Lothian is set to save 60% on its National Grid energy demands as well as thousands of pounds a year on electricity and gas bills.

Sanyo announced Monday its popular brand of HIT N- and H-series solar modules has passed the IEC 61701 standard test for salt mist corrosion.

The Germany-based solar inverter manufacturer Delta Energy Systems is now entering the UK PV market with its string inverter models SOLIVIA 2.5, 3.0 and 3.3 EU G3. Focusing on residential installations, the inverters have a power output range between 2.5kW and 3.3kW and will be available from September this year.

August wasn’t a particularly good month for some solar PV customers and installers … as two MCS listed module manufacturers headed into bankruptcy. Evergreen Solar filed for bankruptcy earlier in the month and Solyndra announced it had suspended operations and planned to file for bankruptcy as the month closed.

Glenrothes-based Kingdom Housing Association has bettered more than 500 other nominees by walking away with a Green Apple Environmental Award for its Kingdom House project in Pittenweem, Fife. This November the organisation will be presented with the prize at an awards ceremony held at the House of Commons.