Why SolarEdge inverters really do have the edge

June was a scorcher, one of the UK’s hottest ever. It led to solar power breaking all records and providing a quarter of the country’s electricity: On 7 June, renewables generated more electricity than coal and gas for the first time ever in Britain – 50.7%. Include nuclear and low carbons and this figure rises to 72.1%. According to National Grid, days before on 26 May, Photovoltaic panels generated 8.7GW of demand, beating the previous high of 8.48GW. It’s been a good year. Cast your mind back to March and Britain didn’t use…

The concept of clean green electricity from your own home power station once seemed a fanciful dream world, featuring cars that didn’t use petrol and a hand held super computer to check energy consumption from anywhere on the planet. This future is now reality, thanks to advances in lithium ion batteries and innovators like billionaire Elon Musk of Tesla Motors, the US electric car manufacturer. His company has evolved from an electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer, harnessing the same Lithium ion battery technology, to create the ‘Powerwall’, which Musk describes as a “fundamental transformation (in) how energy is delivered across…

As well as Solaredge inverters, there are a large number of inverters on the market and their names are probably unfamiliar, so how do you decide which one represents the best value ? Let’s begin with what the inverter does: the brain and heart of any solar power system, it’s a small box with a big job, sitting between the roof panels and fuse board. Without it, your system won’t work. Its role is to convert electricity from DC to AC household current as efficiently as possible. The inverter sits at the end of the row or string…

There are still many benefits of solar panels, despite cuts to the UK government’s energy subsidy. Here’s the lowdown on generating your own electricity and the latest on just how much the world loves renewables. Less bills, more energy Solar panels generate electricity, can help reduce your energy bills and create a tax-free, index linked income of 4.11p/kWh*. This money is not only guaranteed for 20 years through the Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) but also paid whether or not you use the electricity. It doesn’t stop there – an Export Tariff also pays for every…

  Six years on from the introduction of the Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) in 2010, which was designed to stimulate the uptake of renewables via a cash revenue stream, we now find ourselves in a very different environment. In the eyes of the Government solar has been too successful, with over 800,000 residential systems installed over six years, and as of January 2016 the subsidy (FIT) for small solar was cut by 70 per cent. The question now on everyone’s lips is ‘will solar survive?’ Personally I welcome this development, if not the way it was handled, but…

Carbon Update June 2015. Lots in the press over the last 6 months, plus a couple of excellent books, highlighting the massive inconsistency between the politicians fudged consensus around keeping global temperature rises to 2 degrees (above pre industrial revolution levels), and the market capitalisation of the worlds major oil gas & coal businesses. What do I mean by this ? Well the developing consensus from a large number of informed and independent observers is that, if we were to accept a range of policy & economic measures, considered necessary to give us a 50% chance of keeping within the…

In May we installed our first integrated solar panels using the GBSol ‘Roof Integrated System’. In the ‘RIS’ system the 4mm glass laminates are manufactured separately from the supporting aluminium framework.  This enables non standard roof shapes to be accommodated and helps to maximise the area of roof available for solar PV. In this installation the array comprised of 9 laminates, 6 x 250W and 3 x 125. The first stage of the installation involves fixing of the aluminium framework to the roof  which is fabricated with a rebate to accommodate the 4mm laminates. The laminates are then secured in…

Twickenham MP and Government Business Secretary Vince Cable recently paid a visit to an innovative solar PV system we recently installed. Dr Cable gave the installation his seal of approval stating  ‘my party is committed to delivering a low carbon economy and it is fantastic to see SogoSolar, a local solar panel company, deliver affordable and sustainable solutions.’ This Building Integrated PV (BIPV) system was designed with the client as part of a loft conversion. By working closely with the client and the loft conversion company we were able to ensure that both the desire to maximise natural light and…

Building integrated solar PV systems are often considered a more aesthetically acceptable option for installing solar. We offer a wide range of either ‘in roof’ or ‘integrated’ solar pv systems to meet these concerns.   ‘In roof’ and ‘integrated’ solar PV systems are those in which the solar PV array itself forms the weatherproofing barrier of the roof, and as such, they replace the conventional tiles or slates. Such systems are aesthetically more sensitive and are often specified in locations where planning restrictions precluded the use of traditional framed modules installed ‘above’ the roof. More about in roof and integrated…

For installations on flat roofs, how about installing the system using an east/west orientation rather than south facing. Are there any benefits ? It turns out that there are a number of benefits as follows; Increased Yield: According to German manufacturer Renusol, an east / west system can generate around 30 percent more solar power than south-facing systems fitted to flat roofs of the same size. This is due to lower angles of inclination that allow the solar modules to be fitted without any gaps between the rows, meaning that roof space is put to full use. While south-facing…