News: Profile
Life after FiTs
PV installers willing to diversify
into complimentary products have
no need to fear possible cuts to the
Feed-in Tariff, was the message
at SEUK from Jerry Hamilton,
director of renewables and energy
solutions at Rexel
peaking to a large audience during a panel debate,
Jerry said that installers facing a fall in demand
for PV in 2016 should take more interest in their
customers’ overall energy consumption, to profit
from the changing business landscape.
Both storage and smart controls were areas potentially
lucrative to PV installers prepared to upskill and embrace
emerging technologies, he concluded.
“We are in a position to help people use less energy and
reduce costs, and we must make the most of this. Installers must
make the fundamental shift away from simply saying that PV is
going to make customers a profit.
“All the homes you’ve fitted PV in and not fitted a smart
meter is a missed opportunity. If you can’t engage with an
App on a smartphone, it is a missed opportunity. If you do not
embrace these gadgets, someone else will and you’ve missed an
opportunity.”
He added: “The cost of batteries will drop by as much as
80 percent in the next five years according to one manufacturer,
and we as an industry must start fitting them now to get the
costs down.
“We are likely to have peak demand problems with
electricity generation in the near future making storage the
absolute solution.
“So don’t miss the opportunities to train and fit storage
before the boom to get ahead of the curve.”
S
Solar Power Portal
Awards winners
Solar Power Portal has announced the
winners of its annual awards, held
on Tuesday 13 October at The Vox,
Birmingham NEC
T
he awards were hosted by environmental author and radio
presenter Leo Johnson, brother of London Mayor Boris. The
winners were as follows:
Best community benefit
Joju Solar and Low Carbon Hub
PV Tech award for best international use of solar
Backwoods Solar
Highly commended: Gran Solar
Best rooftop project 250kW+
SBC Renewables
Best rooftop project <250kW, sponsored by Schneider Electric:
Advanced Renewable Power
Highly commended: Joju Solar
Best use of solar in a CSR project
BUPA
Clean Energy News award for best integrated renewables system
Solar Kingdom
Best ground-mount project over 5MW
Solstice Renewables
Best solar finance innovation
Big60Million
Best industry innovation
SolarEdge
Installation company of the year, sponsored by Rexel Energy
Solutions
Solarsense
Highly commended: Joju Solar
Apprentice of the year
Victoria Omobuwajo, Repowering London
Branching out: PV installers diversifying into storage or smart
controls will survive next year’s fall in PV demand, should Feed-in
Tariff cuts go ahead, argues Rexel’s Jerry Hamilton
Solar Power Portal outstanding achievement award
Jeremy Leggett
www.renewableenergyinstaller.co.uk | 9