- Prompt response to Chris Huhne's letter - article in Guardian and support from Ed Miliband MP
- Renewable Industry Leaders write to Chris Huhne MP - 02/09/10
- Press Release 23/08/10: Huge drop in solar thermal sales since new Government - Solar Trade Association survey reports dramatic drops
- Climate Change Minister sets out vision for local energy economies (Press Release 12/07/10)
- The Solar Trade Association Reacts to No-notification Closure of Low Carbon Buildings Programme - 24/05/10
PV Systems
PV systems can be grouped into grid connected and stand-alone/off grid systems.
The grid connected system allows the building in question to use a certain amount of the generated electricity, with the rest feeding directly onto the National Grid. An advantage of the grid connected system is that it allows you to get the balance of your electricity needs from the grid and it also allows you to export excess generated electricity back to the grid. Through the recently introduced Feed in Tariff for every unit (kWh) of electricity generated you will receive between 29.3p/Kwh and 41.3p/Kwh (generation tariff), as well as 3p/kWh for every unit exported back to the grid (export tariff). The grid connected system would have a grid connect inverter as well as a meter. The inverter would transform the DC power from the PV modules into AC power at a voltage and frequency that can be accepted by the grid while the meter would monitor the energy produced and used on site; as well as total energy exported to the grid.
Stand alone systems used for domestic and industrial applications in which a household or company is able to produce its own electricity and its yield can be matched to its demand. The electricity generated can be stored in batteries for use at a later time. This type of system is also very useful for remote locations where it is inconvenient or expensive to connect to the grid, an example of this is in navigation buoys. They are also used for other applications such as garden lights, parking meters, etc
Domestic PV systems are usually roof mounted in an array of panels and are placed at angles best suited to receive the energy coming from the sun. The orientation of these arrays would ideally be southerly, though PV systems will perform at almost any orientation (though output may be lower and the system should be sized accordingly). They can also be pole or ground mounted. An important consideration is that the panels are mounted in areas where there are no tall buildings or trees so as to minimise shading which will adversely affect the performance of the system.