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Image: Solarsense.
Founder Stephen Barrett set up solar installer Solarsense in 1995, when solar PV was still in its infancy in the UK. Now, 25 years on the company has installed more than 14,000 residential, commercial and industrial renewable energy installations.
The sector in the UK and around the world has grown exponentially over that time, with the cumulative solar PV capacity installed in the UK now above 14GWp-dc, helped greatly by dramatic price drops.
Ahead of the company’s 25th anniversary,
Solar Power Portal caught up with Barrett to discuss how the sector has developed over the last quarter century, and what’s next.
Anesco has submitted a planning application for a 19.657MW Solar Farm in Amber Valley, Derbyshire.
The site would have 36,720 ground-mount solar panels arranged along a racking system with a maximum height of 2.5m, at a fixed tilt of 15 degrees. The angle is specific to the site and based upon the topography and latitude, with the panels – which have a non-reflective material to ensure there is no glare – to face south.
Panels will be laid out in east-west rows, with approximately 4-5.5m between each row across 37.902 hectares. The site will be configured with string inverters that can sit discretely on the rear of the ground mount frames.
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Christelle Barnes, country manager at SolarEdge. Image: SolarEdge.
There is a growing interest in commercial solar in the UK, SolarEdge’s country manager Christelle Barnes recently told
Solar Power Portal, as companies increasingly look to bring down their power prices and increase their sustainability.
SolarEdge was launched in 2006, and has since grown to be one of the top inverter suppliers in the world, operating in over 133 countries.
Barnes explained how the company’s optimised PV system differs from traditional string inverters, how that helps tackle some of the challenges with installation and finance models coming full circle .
Could tell me a little about how your optimised PV systems work in comparison with traditional string inverters?
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Cover image - The Chapel Farm solar project, brought forward by Swindon Borough Council. Image: Swindon Borough Council.
I have been working in solar farm development with local authorities for over ten years now and over that time many different themes have developed. Financial incentives have come and gone, government policy has ebbed and flowed and the position of local government has bobbed like a boat on a tide.
Latterly, local authorities have endured a sustained period of austerity, where their budgets have been cut by up to 50%; more recently, local councils have been at the forefront of the Covid-19 pandemic and have been instrumental in dealing with the impact of the crisis at local level.
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Reporter, Solar Power Portal
As Viridian Solar looks to expand – with the Netherlands a key market for the company – the “financial firepower” it now has access to will help it support even its largest clients in rolling out solar as a standard part of every roof.
Speaking to
Solar Power Portal after the announcement that Viridian has been acquired by roofing manufacturer Marley, Viridian Solar CEO Stuart Elmes said that it’s “very flattering” that a company with the “reputation and history of Marley wanted to own Viridian”.
With further growth of Viridian on the cards, the company is looking specifically at the Netherlands, which Elmes said is a “really great market for roof integrated solar” and a country in which “there’s plenty more scope to build our share of the market”.