Renewable Energy Installer November 2015 | Page 15

Mounting
muck-ups
Bill Wright, head of energy
solutions at The Electrical
Contractors’ Association,
finds a glimmer of hope
from the Treasury amid
deep spending cuts on
renewables
Steve Pester, BRE, exposes
ongoing poor practice in mounting
PV panels
ith the government’s final decision on changes to
support mechanisms for solar not yet announced,
I am inclined to steer clear of crystal ball gazing
(however tempting). To use a heating analogy,
let’s just hope for a slight turning down of the thermostat rather
than a scrapping of the whole heating system.
So, I will take refuge in a techie subject, and a different kind
of solar support. On our travels over the past couple of years,
providing quality inspections and fault-finding services, we have
seen quite a number of roof-mounted PV installations that have
panels incorrectly mounted. The usual problems are:
W
G
eorge Orwell’s term ‘doublespeak’ –
where you say one thing and mean the
opposite – appears have been adopted by
the government. On the one hand Amber Rudd
has announced plans to cut all subsidies available
for renewables and on the other the Treasury is
looking to create an enhanced role for ESOS.
At the start of October, Ms Rudd announced
major cuts to FiTs and claimed that by doing so
she is encouraging the industry to stand on its
own two feet.
Sadly that isn’t the case. Incentives are
still crucial in getting consumers to invest in
microgeneration technology and cutting them
looks likely to kill the domestic market for new
solar PV. The commercial market won’t be so
affected but it will depend on firms having
enlightened attitudes to the technology and
being able to look beyond the cost of the initial
investment. Even more worryingly, the sudden,
drastic cuts proposed to FiTs will mean there
will be serious job losses, and the investment the
government has made in training and building an
infrastructure for this industry will disappear.
But all is not entirely lost. A consultation
published by the Treasury at the start of October
proposed reforming the Business Energy
Efficiency Tax, and suggested that all the various
data reporting regulations were consolidated into
one area. Better yet, it plans to put ESOS at the
heart of any new incentives on energy efficiency,
which is good news as it has suffered as a stand-
alone programme and will benefit from being part
of a wider energy efficiency initiative.
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Unevenness in the alignment of panels
Incorrect positioning of mounting clamps
Clamp screws with incorrect or random torque settings
Mounting rails too short or too long
Panels too close to roof edges
Tiles lifted by roof hooks
Insufficient roof hooks for the calculated wind loading
Split rafters through ignoring screw diameter / timber
thickness rules, or misaligned screws
Then there are design decisions that have been left to
chance, for example:
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No wind loading calculations, so the number of roof hooks
required is just guesswork
No effective assessment of roof structures
With the FiT rush that is now under way, it is easy to let
installation quality slip
in favour of maximising
installed capacity. But
with the solar industry
still fighting to be taken
seriously by the powers
that be, it is essential to
be seen as a capable and
highly professional sector.
Let’s keep a focus on
quality – and avoid return
trips to site!
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