UK
Conergy Completes 4.5MW Solar Plant in the UK
24 April 2013POSTED IN Applications News
Conergy announced today the completion of a 4.5MW solar farm at the end of March for the UK’s largest solar PV developer, Lightsource Renewable Energy. Conergy was the general contractor, responsible for engineering and layout, construction and component supply for the plant, which will be owned and operated by Lightsource for the next 25 years. Connection to the grid comes only weeks after Conergy supplied four other solar farms with a total capacity of 15 megawatts in the UK, which is experiencing rapid growth in large-scale solar deployment.
Trina Solar Supplies 33MW Solar Modules to UK PV Project
05 April 2013POSTED IN Business News
Trina Solar Limited has supplied S.A.G. Solarstrom AG with more than 137,000 solar panels with a total generation capacity of 33MW.
UK Completes First Stage of Smart Grid Project
26 March 2013POSTED IN Applications News
The UK's largest smart grid project has completed the first stage of its research into electricity consumption after establishing a series of ongoing trials with 12,000 customers.
Neutron Scattering Technique May Increase Thin-Film Solar Efficiency
11 March 2013POSTED IN Research
Engineers and scientists from the University of Sheffield, UK, have pioneered a new technique — called SERGIS — to measure the structure of PCBM crystallites (a fullerene derivative of the C60 buckyball) in thin-film solar cell materials, which will ultimately help to make the cells more efficient.
Ellipsoidal Mirror Helps Push Boundaries of Solar Research
07 March 2013POSTED IN Research
Optical Surfaces Ltd. has supplied a 350 millimetre (mm) diameter on-axis ellipsoidal mirror to the Kiepenheuer-Institut für Sonnenphysik (KIS) in Freiberg, Germany. KIS is a German institute for solar research with ground-based telescopes. It runs two telescopes on the island of Tenerife: the Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT), which has an aperture of 0.7 metres (m), and the Gregor telescope, which has an aperture of 1.5m.
Ecobuild: REC talks solar electricity solutions
28 February 2013POSTED IN Business News
Solar panel supplier REC will discuss solar electricity solutions, and present the REC Partner Program for distributors and project developers and the REC Solar Professional Program for installers at Ecobuild 2013 (booth S.2135), 5-7 March in London.
Wirsol Brings 10MW Solar to UK Grid
28 February 2013POSTED IN Applications News
Wirsol has brought about 10MW of solar power to the grid with two solar parks in southern England along with UK solar energy producer Lightsource Renewable Energy.
The two PV power plants are in Hewas (6MW) and Penhale (3.6MW).
Ecobuild: Solar-Log monitoring system helps securing lasting solar yields
22 February 2013POSTED IN New Products
Solare Datensysteme will exhibit its Solar-Log monitoring system at Ecobuild in London, 5-7 March, at its booth 2909 in the North Hall.
The monitoring system helps reduce yield losses and offers additional functions that help increase the operating efficiency of a PV plant, the company says.
Ecobuild: Nedap exhibits PowerRouter
22 February 2013POSTED IN New Products
Nedap will exhibit its PowerRouter, a storage-based inverter, at the Ecobuild exhibition in London, 5-7 March, with live product demonstrations at booth S2722.
UK Farm Rents Land to Lightsource for Solar
20 February 2013POSTED IN Applications News
Luson Farm in Ermington, near Ivybridge, Devonshire has recently rented out a small percentage of its land to UK solar power generator, Lightsource Renewable Energy. The land will now accommodate a solar farm generating 1.9MW, which is enough electricity to supply the whole of Ermington.
Badgers, PV in Harmony on UK Solar Farm
15 February 2013POSTED IN Applications News
Palfreys Barton Farm in the village of Cove near Tiverton is one of the latest farms in Devon to rent out a small percentage of its land to UK solar power generator Lightsource Renewable Energy.
The land will now accommodate a solar farm generating 0.96MW of solar energy, saving about 480,000kg of CO2 emissions annually.
Clues from Quantum Biology Could Lead to More Efficient Solar Energy
27 January 2013POSTED IN Research
Quantum scale photosynthesis in biological systems that inhabit extreme low-light environments could hold the key to more efficient solar cell designs. Recent research work at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, aimed at providing a better understanding of the surprisingly long quantum coherence times between the exciton states that carry energy in pigment-protein complexes (PPCs), the biomolecular structures that perform light absorption, energy transport and charge separation in natural photosynthetic organisms.
17 UK Solar Companies Sue Government Over FiT Cuts
23 January 2013POSTED IN Politics and Policy News
Seventeen solar companies are planning to sue the British government for £140m in damages, because of the cuts to subsidies in 2011 that were subsequently ruled "legally flawed" in the high court.
Southern Solar Uses Multi-Function Electrical Tester on School Installation
03 January 2013POSTED IN Applications News
The UK’s Southern Solar has used the new Seaward Solar PV150 hand-help electrical tester to install a 37kWp solar PV system at Bartholomew School in Eynsham, near Oxford.
UK Government Sets Solar PV Subsidies
19 December 2012POSTED IN Politics and Policy News
The UK government has set solar and biomass subsidy levels for the next five years, and says building-mounted solar PV projects will receive higher rates than ground-mounted projects over the 2013-2017 period.
Case Study: Blackfriars Railway Station Goes Solar
19 December 2012POSTED IN Case Studies and Solar Solutions
Powering a railway station with solar energy is a winning situation all the way around. Not only is railway travel one of the cleanest form of transportation, but the Blackfriars station will be getting 50% of its energy needs right from its own roof with a recent solar installation. A further benefit is the high visibility, showing all who travel through this busy station in Central London, that really works, it’s affordable and is an attractive showpiece on this Victorian-style station.
Lightsource Moves Into New London Office
05 November 2012POSTED IN Business News
Lightsource Renewable Energy today announced it has consolidated its UK operations into one centralised office.
The solar developer says the move to Level 5 at 20 Old Bailey in London was necessitated by the rapid expansion of the company. Lightsource started out with just eight employees in 2010 and now employs more than 100.
£40 Million for UK Local Energy Bill Blitz
23 October 2012POSTED IN Politics and Policy News
The UK government has announced a £40 million competition aimed at driving local initiatives to boost energy efficiency, reduce fuel poverty and encourage collective switching and purchasing.
Solarcentury Donates £35,118 to Share a Light
17 October 2012POSTED IN Business News
Solarcentury today announced its donation of £35,118 to SolarAid’s Share a Light campaign in Africa.
The Share a Light campaign, which aims to eradicate kerosene from Africa by 2020, will use the donation to subsidise the cost of more than 5,850 solar lamps.
How Solvent Mixtures Affect Organic Solar Cell Structure
12 October 2012POSTED IN Research
Physicists from the North Carolina State University (NC State) in the US, in collaboration with teams of scientists from the United Kingdom, Australia and China, studied whether controlling the mixing between acceptor and donor layers (or domains) in polymer-based solar cells could increase their efficiency.
