DECC's solar forecasts
At yesterday's On-site Renewables meeting with DECC in London it was amazing to see just how far out the government figures were in terms of their forecasts for solar PV. Their prediction that the UK would see 137MW capacity installed in the last year was wildly outstripped by the actual figure of 987MW! The predicted performance of solar energy systems was also vastly underrated, as the forecasts were made using SAP figures based on climate data from Sheffield, while the majority of systems were actually installed in the sunnier southerly parts of England.
They have now reassessed these ratings and the new figures show Somerset to have around 20% greater potential for solar generation than the previous SAP figures - which is what we have always said: South West is Best for solar!
Steve
......................................................................................................................... 13/02/2011
FIT cuts and heat pumps
The DECC announcement on the future of FITS is still being digested and analysed here, but with the requirement effective from April for houses to have an Energy Performance Certificate of level D or above in order to get the Feed in Tariff, it makes sense for anyone whose house has an EPC well below that level to install before April.Things are still moving on at quite a pace here however; next week Solarsense will install our first Ecodan air-to-water heat pump at my own house, which will be available to be seen as part of our Low Carbon Open Office openings. My place has a number of renewable technologies installed, with solar thermal, PV (including a small intregrated example), a heat recovery system and underfloor heating.
My family is well used to having their home experimented on over the years! But with this heat pump we will be using all their tried and tested kit and control system so it won't be too experimental....
We have a number of installations booked in for these Ecodan heat pumps as well as our borehole water-to-water units.
Steve Barrett
......................................................................................................................... 08/02/2012
Our first Open Offices
Last Saturday was the first opening of our Low Carbon Open Offices, where we open to the public for the benefit of anyone who wants to find out more about the technologies we have on site.
As well as our 80ft borehole and open loop groundwater heat pump, which combined with our solar thermal system provide all the hot water and heating for the office, we have covered our own warehouse roof in solar PV, with four arrays of different modules installed side by side which will allow us to compare in situ performance over time from the different manufacturers.
The system is forecast to generate around 40,000 kWh each year, putting us in "carbon credit" as our annual demand with the heat pump installed will only be around 25,000 kWh. We also have had a permanent viewing platform installed so that people can get up and see what the panels look like.
We have various other improvements still to make, and Our Low Carbon Open Offices will be continue to open for visitors on the first Saturday of every month.
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