The St Austell location for the Centre was chosen because the majority of the UK’s solar PV installations are focused in South West England with a total of 55,577 installations in the region.
A new Building Research Establishment (BRE) National Solar Centre in the Cornish town of St Austell is hoped to help industry and government deliver on the solar PV (photovoltaics) opportunities set out in DECC’s recent 2012 Renewables Roadmap Update.
The UK’s PV capacity is said to be being “steered for growth” from its current 1.4GW base up to a potential 20GW by 2020.
NOTE: The Renewables Roadmap sets out a action plan to accelerate the UK’s deployment and use of renewable energy and (so says DECC) put us on the path to achieve our 2020 targets, while driving down the cost of renewable energy over time.
With funding from the EU and support from Cornwall Council and DECC, the BRE National Solar Centre has a remit to drive innovation, cost reduction and increased confidence in the marketplace through what its backers have termed “knowledge generation”.
Whether there is substance to back to intentions behind the programme is yet to be seen. In the meantime, there has apparently been a commitment to engage with organisations outside the traditional scope of the industry to ensure that PV is better understood as a technology so its potential can be realised. A particular focus is understood to be directed at the construction industry which must improve its understanding of how to integrate PV products better with buildings.
A “dramatic” reduction
“We have a real opportunity here to drive the uptake of solar PV. The sector has seen a dramatic reduction in installed costs by up to 50% between 2010-2012. The Centre will help the sector deliver further reductions so solar PV can become competitive with other low-carbon electricity sources,” said BRE director Nick Tune. “There are significant opportunities to support the development of Building Integrated PV products and the interaction of PV with commercial buildings. We will also look at issues around smart grids, storage, power output prediction and more – all critical factors for improving the long term performance of the technology and creating confidence in its future.”
The BRE National Solar Centre will provide:
- Analysis, data collection and publications to create a full and authoritative knowledge base for the industry
- An observatory for best practice, both in the UK and internationally
- Support for the development of future standards to increase quality of PV installations
- Support for UK solar industries in a worldwide market
- Due diligence consultancy and testing for new build installations
- Fault finding, verification and optimisation for existing systems
- Product development for building-integrated PV and other integrated approaches
- Direct support for Cornish small and medium enterprises
- Encouragement for inward investment to create a cluster of solar PV companies on the site.
“Win” for the end user?
The past two years have seen subsidies for solar PV installations under the feed-in tariff slashed by as much as 50% in the past year. However, many in the solar industry believe that as costs have come down so rapidly, it will still be able to make solar PV an attractive proposition to building owners and managers.
“The cost of installation has come down so much that in reality the return on investment for PV is now as good as it was during the peaks of 2011,” Paul Barwell, CEO of the Solar Trade Association told Energy Demand. “Tariffs have come down in line with costs. The clear winner is the end user.”
The UK’s energy mix
Speaking at the launch of the BRE National Solar Centre, Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said, “Solar is an exciting and rapidly growing clean, green source of power and has a valuable part to play in the UK’s energy mix. The new Cornwall based National Solar Centre will help drive down costs, improve efficiency, catalyse growth, spur innovation and develop expertise on the ground. We have seen dramatic reductions in costs of the technology over the past year and that’s why we have made changes to our incentives under Feed-in-Tariffs and the Renewables Obligation, to help put this industry on a more sustainable footing and ensure solar continues to thrive in the future.”
The St Austell location for the Centre was chosen because the majority of the UK’s solar PV installations are focused in South West England with a total of 55,577 installations in the region.
Cornwall itself offers the “most sunshine hours of any county in the UK” combined with an infrastructure and business environment specifically designed to help push the industry forward.