Renewable Energy Installer December/January 2014 | Page 18

Opinion
By guest columnist
Bill Wright,
head of energy
solutions, Electrical
Contractors’
Association
Talking point
Liz MacFarlane, Zenex Solar, critiques
the four key challenges the PV sector
faces if the UK is to see 20GW installed
by the end of the decade
f you were at Solar Energy UK
in October you would have
heard Greg Barker’s speech on
the government’s Roadmap
to a UK PV Strategy. There is much to be
pleased with and lots to look forward to.
Currently, we’ve installed 1.7GW
of PV in the UK under the Feed-In
Tariff; that’s almost half a million
installations. The government sees four
key challenges to enable the UK market
to reach its potential: cost reduction,
carbon-effectiveness, sustainability and
Finger pointing: Zenex
scalability.
Solar’s Liz MacFarlane
says the government
I won’t disagree. These are certainly
should take its fair
hurdles to grid parity. However, I would
share of responsibility
for contributing to the
also argue that they are challenges
problems faced by the PV
which in some respect were created by
sector
government and EU policy in the first
place.
Let’s take challenge number one - cost reduction. Easy to say
when Chinese module manufacturers have what is tantamount to
legalised price fixing imposed on them via the minimum pricing
agreement. The big Chinese producers are not struggling to sell their
quota and must be heady over their increased margin but it really
doesn’t help the government’s cause of driving down costs, particularly
when Europe struggles for its own production capacity. Inverter and
mounting kit manufacturers cannot reduce costs anymore, and I’m
speaking from experience when I say distributor margins are way
below what would be expected in other sectors. I think installers would
say the same.
Regarding challenge number two - carbon effectiveness - I can
only speak of our own crazy situation during the PV rush of 2011. With
only six weeks notice of the FiT cuts, we air freighted 26 containers
of panels from China to ensure our clients could meet their install
demand. What a crazy situation for an industry whose very foundation
is to help the UK meet carbon reduction targets.
With distribution network operator (DNO) support, clarity on pension
schemes and tax liability then scalability should be possible. The UK
could achieve Mr Barker’s 20GW by 2020 ambition by simply utilising
16 percent of our commercial and industrial roof space.
I
T
he recent announcement that
EDF are to build the UK’s first
new nuclear power station in
20 years is good news for the economy
and for the long term future of secure
energy supply. Unfortunately this will
take at least 10 years to construct
so we will have to rely on more
conventional sources until then. The
only thing that can be guaranteed is
that energy prices will still rise! This
gives added impetus to the energy
efficiency and renewable energy
industry. The high cost of energy
makes the installation of energy
efficient devices more imperative and
encourages more use of renewable
energy systems. If you can generate
your own power on site, that is less
power to import and makes the use of the storage systems
that I mentioned last month more economic. It will be
difficult to make a modern building completely off grid
as the incoming power can provide for the peaks of the
building’s energy usage but it must make good capital
investment sense to put as much renewable power into
a building as possible. With the current incentives both
in FiTs and the RHI there is an exceptionally good return
on capital with the added bonus of being partly insulated
from rising energy prices. There may yet be more added
incentives to save energy as consultations have taken
place on Electricity Demand Reduction and the recent
Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme consultation is
proposing audits for medium to large energy users with
recommendations on energy reduction. If these are
coupled with further incentives, then the energy efficiency
industry could have a new lease of life.
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