40
JANUARY 2015 PRO INSTALLER
PRO BUSINESS
www.proinstaller.co.uk
Home grown UK solar is the way forward
Britain’s solar power will be cheaper than gas by 2018, according
to new industry analysis.The Solar Trade Association (STA)
has published new analysis showing the cost of generating
electricity from a typical 10MW solar farm in the UK is set
to fall faster than many think over the next 15 years.
The report, ’Cost
reduction potential of
large-scale solar PV’,
is based on a survey of
the trade association’s
member companies and
their cost forecasts between now and 2030.
UK solar soon to be
cheaper than gas
The report finds that as
long as the Government
provides stable policy
support, it will be cheaper
to generate electricity from
solar than by burning gas,
as soon as 2018.
Paul Barwell, CEO of the
Solar Trade Association
said:
“A lot of people still don’t
realise just how close solar
is to being competitive with
gas-fired power generation.
UK solar is on its way to
becoming subsidy-free, but
it is critical we maintain
stable Government policy
that supports grid connected utility-scale solar as
opposed to fossil fuel power
stations.”
In addition, the study
shows that solar will be
cheaper than the wholesale
price of electricity at some
point between 2025 and
2028. The cost of generating
electricity from gas, on the
other hand, is forecast to
increase in real terms over
the next 15 years, and will
always be more expensive
than wholesale power.
The results show that the
cost of building a large-scale
solar farm is set to go down
faster than currently estimated by the Government. This
is thanks to a growing solar
supply chain here in Britain,
as well as falling global
prices for solar panels and
inverters; the equipment
that changes the electricity
produced by panels into the
kind of power used by the
grid.
Greater ambitions
supported by
lower costs
This research follows a recent report from the Centre
for Economics and Business
Research (Cebr) about the
macroeconomic benefits
for the UK of investment in
solar, which showed that the
UK could provide enough
electricity to supply 15% of
UK electricity demand by
2030, supporting almost
50,000 jobs. Big solar arrays
alone could add more than
£25 billion to UK economic
output.
The global solar market
is forecast to be worth over
£78bn ($134bn) by 2020,
making it a key emerging
technology market. The
International Energy Agency, Fraunhofer, McKinsey,
Deutsche Bank, Bloomberg and UBS have all said
how solar has the potential
to transform our energy
supply.
However, the Government
recently announced that it
was going to close the current Renewables Obligation
subsidy scheme for solar
farms over 5 MW (about 25
acres), which will slow the
falling cost of generating solar electricity on a big scale.
Paul Barwell continued:
“It is clear that it makes
political and economic sense
for the Government to back
large-scale solar, with the
sector’s track record in creating jobs, and producing ever
cheaper zero carbon power.
This report makes that case
even more strongly as our
updated costs forecast shows
that solar is even cheaper
than thought. We just need
one final push from the Government to get solar to being
subsidy-free; a home grown
solution to Britain’s energy
crisis.”
“It is in the interests of
both energy bill payers and
the planet to maintain stable
support for good quality
large-scale solar farms. If
we invest now, and make
sure the new Contracts for
Difference support scheme
works for solar, this technology could in 10 years’ time
be bringing down energy
bills.”
WER calculator for the future
The VEKA UK Group has unveiled the industry’s only BSI notified and
BFRC certified window and door energy performance calculator.
Principal Engineer Tim Williams has unveiled the only
calculator in the industry capable of providing accurate
SELs, DSELs in accordance
with the BFRC, and notified
U-Values for CE Marking in
accordance with EN 14351.
The calculator is unique to
each fabricator’s products.
BFRC rules covering the simulation of spacer bars, changed at the
beginning of September 2014, and
immediately made results from all
existing SEL calculators invalid,
and subsequently illegal. The rules
stated that all warm edge spacer
bars should be simulated as two
box models, and all pre-September
simplified energy licenses based
on the old spacer bar simulation
method were made obsolete.
Tim explains: “As of 1st September 2014, changes in BFRC
rules brought about by updated
European standards meant that all
previous energy rating calculators
immediately became invalid.
“CE Marking is a legal requirement for windows and doors, and
making false declarations about
U-Values may lead to prosecution. I would estimate that less
than 40% of the industry is fully
covered by every aspect of CE
Marking.
‘VEKA UK Group
is committed to
staying up-to-date’
“VEKA UK Group is committed
to staying up-to-date in all aspects
of the business. Our new calculator is the only ‘intelligent’ one in
the industry, and with the culmination of more than a year’s work
to ensure when the 2014 changes
were introduced our custom ers
would have the tools to stay
on the right side of the
law.
“The new calculator
has been officially
notified by the BSI for
CE Marking and we’ve
designed it to provide
CE Marking, U-values in
accordance with BS EN 14351
for all the major VEKA UK Group
products.
“The system is bespoke to each
fabricator or installer and is personalised depending on which
VEKA or Halo systems they use.
The resulting Energy Certificate
can be given to the homeowner or
client as independent proof of a
product’s thermal performance.
“It offers huge cost savings as
it can be used as many times as
you like; eliminating the cost
currently associated with auditing
or notifying each window or door
configuration.
“Extremely
simple to use, the
system allows one form
to be filled in via numerous drop
down boxes that allow fabricators
to try all the available configurations, with different glass, spacer bars. It is the only calculator
that carries out all the necessary
energy rating and U-value calculations from scratch, enabling many
permutations of profiles, reinforcement, spacer bars and glass to be
used.”
The calculator, designed to be ‘future proof’
as it can, will be sent to customers
manually, however the long-term
plan is for it to be hosted on the
website so customers can log in to
access their bespoke version.
For more information
visit www.vekauk.com