Opinion
By guest columnist Bill
Wright, head of energy
solutions, Electrical
Contractors’ Association
The state of play
Steve Pester, BRE, appraises the
health of the solar sector a year on
from the much-heralded publication
of the Solar Strategy
n April
2014, the
government
published
the second part of its Solar
Strategy, which aimed to
shift the emphasis from
large ground mounted
installations (which have
sometimes been a subject
of concern due to siting)
but to encourage a breaking
down of barriers for the
non-domestic rooftop
sector. This sector consists
of not merely commercial roofs, but also public buildings.
For example, figures from BRE indicate that there are
approximately 10 million square meters’ of roof space available
on National Health Service properties alone.
The proposed policy changes include allowing non-
domestic system owners to take their PV system with them if
they move premises and a relaxation of planning consent for
roof-mounted systems up to 1MW. However, even before these
changes take effect, exemplar systems are starting to appear
up and down the country. For example, at Ecobuild this year
Marks & Spencer and Jaguar-Land Rover presented impressive
roof-top systems on their own premises, each in the region of
6MW.
The government too is setting an example with its pledge
to install 1GW of PV on its own estate, starting around now.
The BRE National Solar Centre has been working with the
Institute of Engineering Technology to produce a new Code
of Practice (CoP) for installers. To be published April/May, this
guide is aimed at raising the quality of installations. It is to be
applied to the government estate projects and is likely to start
being specified for larger installations in general.
The domestic sector continues with strong growth
at an estimated 3000 installations per week. With this
level of activity, maintaining high standards of design and
workmanship is critical to the success of solar in the UK, so
the CoP will be applicable to all scales of PV. The NSC will be
offering training on the CoP starting this summer.
I
T
he looming General Election makes me
think what will happen to the green
agenda and renewable energy with the
next government?
I think it’s fair to say the coalition hasn’t
been able to deliver the policy agenda that
they (and we) would have hoped for. They’ve
introduced a range of policies and initiatives,
but none of them seem to have hit the mark.
Hopefully the next administration will
change that. I’m not going to try and predict
the result of May’s election, but there are a
couple of outcomes I would hope for from the
new administration - whoever forms it.
Firstly, we need a different approach to
policy around renewables, one that looks at
the long-term rather relying on a swathe of
short-term initiatives. This industry needs a
policy programme that provides some clarity
and stability, particularly as it’s just starting to
recover from the FiTs debacle of 2011.
One thing that needs to be urgently
addressed is the future of the Green Deal. If
it’s going to continue we need to see revisions
brought in which (among others) allow for the
inclusion of FiTs in the Golden Rule, as this
would benefit consumers, the industry and the
environment.
The new administration should also run
an education campaign to change the incorrect
idea that renewables are expensive and don’t
deliver decent returns on investment, and
this needs to be a priority. After all, you can
introduce as many incentives as you like but
if the public don’t support or understand what
you’re doing you won’t get anywhere - a point
I’m sure most politicians would agree with!
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