national solar centre

4th July 2018

5 years on and the futures bright for BRE National Solar Centre

In 2013, Greg Barker, the then Minister State for Energy and Climate Change officially opened the BRE National Solar Centre, the UK solar industry was flourishing with approximately 8,800 new PV systems being installed every month adding over 1.1GW of capacity within the year. A lot has changed for solar over the last 5 years.  … Continue reading “5 years on and the futures bright for BRE National Solar Centre”

11th April 2018

Solar, energy storage, and electric vehicles – joining up the clean technologies

A few eyebrows were raised when in 2015 the Renewable Energy Association (REA) launched its representation of the energy storage sector, and again in 2017 when it did the same for electric vehicles. “What does this have to do with renewables?” Is a question we have been asked often. The answer is key to where … Continue reading “Solar, energy storage, and electric vehicles – joining up the clean technologies”

12th March 2018

New good practice guidance looks at the best way to deliver multifunctional solar car parks

As the UK Government seeks to include more renewable energy in the energy mix, solving problems associated with intermittent renewable generation will become more imperative due to the capacity issues in our electricity distribution network (BEIS, 2017) . Low carbon solutions which balance electricity supply and demand are required to achieve this, and multifunctional solar car parks can be part of … Continue reading “New good practice guidance looks at the best way to deliver multifunctional solar car parks”

12th July 2016

Solar assurance the BRE way

Next week at the Solar PV Summit, BRE will be launching a certification scheme for large scale solar – an area of the UK solar market that is not currently regulated for installation quality. The certification scheme will provide an ongoing impartial assessment of solar PV installations above 50kW. The purpose of the scheme is … Continue reading “Solar assurance the BRE way”

5th July 2016

BRE solar on commercial roofs guide to launch at the Solar PV Summit

Solar on commercial roofs has always lagged behind the domestic rooftop market. Currently, less than 5% of UK solar installations are on commercial roofs, compared to approximately 94% of systems installed on homes[1].  Commercial properties have large, generally unused roofs, and account for about 8% of the UK’s energy consumption[2]. Installing solar can make sound … Continue reading “BRE solar on commercial roofs guide to launch at the Solar PV Summit”

29th March 2016

Driving safety and performance for photovoltaic systems

We caught up with Steve Pester, Principal Consultant from the BRE National Solar Centre to find out how work funded by the BRE Trust is helping improve safety and performance of photovoltaic systems. The research found that minor components installed incorrectly can lead to poor performance and safety issues in photovoltaic systems.  This was then … Continue reading “Driving safety and performance for photovoltaic systems”

19th February 2016

NSC helps secure planning for solar farms on old colliery sites

The NSC have been supporting APSE Energy and assisting a number of their member local authorities through the development stages of large scale solar projects, providing technical expertise for planning and grid connection applications. Three sites, with a cumulative capacity of 12.4MW, have now received planning consent and grid offers and a further eight sites … Continue reading “NSC helps secure planning for solar farms on old colliery sites”

8th October 2015

Raising the bar for quality in the solar PV industry

The latest expert guidance on designing, specifying, installing and maintaining grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in the UK is now available from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). With expert technical input from the BRE National Solar Centre, the IET Code of Practice for Grid Connected Solar Photovoltaic Systems gives solar PV system designers … Continue reading “Raising the bar for quality in the solar PV industry”