As a customer, its important to understand the process by which solar panels get from manufacturers to end users to ensure you’re getting a good deal.  In general, most solar panel manufacturers are big companies who produce in very large quantities. This means they generally prefer to sell to only a few large distributors in high volumes rather than have lots of smaller customers. This makes their sales process easier since managing many customers is very small time-consuming and costly.  The large distributors then sell to either smaller distributors or to installation companies.  The distributors aim to provide all the necessary components for installers, allowing them to buy in small quantities and providing technical support.

Examples of well known solar distributors in the UK are Dulas, Segen, Solar Century and Waxman.  Because the UK solar industry is so small and so new however, these UK wholesalers are very small compared to their European counterparts in Germany, Spain and France.  One of the biggest solar distributors in Germany, IBC Solar, will sell 500MW of solar equipment this year.  This compares to a total expected UK market size this year of 60MW! So IBC Solar sells nearly 10 times the total UK market, and is just one company!

Unsurprisingly, since the UK is now seen as an interesting emerging market in the solar industry, many of these large European distributors are moving over here.  I spoke to one last week that is investing 200 thousand pounds this year to set up a warehouse and employ a 5 person team to address the UK market. This is good news for UK installers because they will now have access to pricing that was only previously available to their counterparts in mainland Europe.  The UK wholesalers on the other hand may struggle to compete with such large competitors.

Competition is coming from all sides however, and there are now solar panel manufacturers who are moving downstream and becoming more like wholesalers. It is now possible for smaller installers to buy directly from a few of the European manufacturers, thereby bypassing the wholesalers and their margins.  To withstand this competition the big European wholesalers are trying to gain advantage by developing an array of advanced support services for wholesalers to win them over.  This includes things like credit lines, training and design software.

It is unclear whether these features will suffice since there is also competition from the big in-house installers.  In the US there is a very large installation firm called SolarCity which is going head to head with the wholesalers for marketshare, but does all installations using its own in-house team.  This has advantages in-terms of pricing and quality of service – there are no middlemen and they can guarantee the end to end service – the drawback is that growth is capital intensive and slow.

The market is evolving so rapidly it remains to be seen which business model will win out in the long run, what is clear is that there will be a lot of movement in the market – all of which is good for customers since it means prices will fall and customer service will improve.  So when choosing a solar panel system, try to find out where the installer buys their solar panels from, not just who the manufacturer is.  This will help you tell if you are getting a good deal or not.

Since our last article on Solar farms the market has moved forward at an incredible pace. In June and July of this year the acreage value being offered for land rental was around £500-1000 per acre for a 25 year period.

As the time to build out the sites has reduced and the governments March 2012 date coming closer for the reduction in tariffs companies have become increasingly competitive in there offers and institutional investors have had to re-assess their potential returns in order to secure site in this green energy land grab. I have heard companies saying the increases that took 8 years in Wind turbine sites have happened in a few months in solar farm land.

So what is the current land value for a 5MW farm site? Usually between (25-30 acres). Companies are now offering between £50k-70k per annum. This is a huge and exciting step forward, it gives farmers a chance for a true long term income which in some cases will be life changing.

The only risk now is that of time-scales, planning has to be submitted over the next couple of months to have any chance of a site receiving the largest FIT. Once the opportunity for the full FIT is lost companies will again drop the prices they can offer and the land owners who have been sitting on the fence will have missed out.

It is still key that you speak with a company who can demonstrate proof of funding, experience in renewable energy planning applications and partners in place to build out and maintain the site.

If you have suitable land:

• 25-40 Acres
• Flat or South facing,
• Not overlooked,
• Grazing or low level agricultural land,
• Close to a substation or power lines

and you would like your site assessed for potential solar development email me at elliot@solarfeedintariff.co.uk.

Hamburg based solar specialist. Centrosolar has opened a UK subsidiary as a way of tapping into the now lucrative UK solar market. Buoyed by the introduction of the feed-in tariff back in April, the UK has attracted growing interest from investors at home and abroad looking to take advantage of the tariff’s offerings.

Centrosolar are a company well known in Germany for the production of both crystalline high performance solar modules and thin film modules designed for roofs not able to take weightier systems. With UK product certification now granted, Centrosolar is looking to ship its products from their plant in Wismar, Germany to the UK where demand for solar systems has grown exponentially through the summer.

Centrosolar are more than aware of the positive affects which strong incentives can have on renewable energy and in particular, PV. Germany has been one of the world’s leaders in solar energy uptake over the last ten years thanks to the strong tariff legislation which has attracted investment in its renewable industries.

With a view to twinning German solar engineering with local market knowledge, Centrosolar have recruited Simon Gerrard, former Head of Sales for Solarcentury to run its UK operations. With daily news updates reporting on the ever-growing success of the UK feed-in tariff, it is very likely that not only will Centrosolar build a strong bridgehead, but others are likely to follow suit before too long.

Solar panels are by far the most expensive item in a solar panel installation. Understanding the features that differentiate a good solar panel from a bad one is not so straightforward. In several instalments I’d like to give a guide to each of the key criteria to look out for. I will try keep it as simple as possible but it is something that many people ask me about so I think it isn’t a bad idea to discuss these issues in some depth.

First of all I’d like to discuss solar panel efficiency. This defines how effective a solar panel is in converting sunlight into electricity for a given surface area. The advantage of having a higher efficiency solar panel is that you can get more power out of a small available area. For this reason, high efficiency solar panels are normally priced at a premium and targeted at the domestic market where space is most constrained. High efficiency does not necessarily mean better quality or reliability however – these issues are covered later. Nor does higher efficiency mean better value; in many cases lower efficiency panels are used because they are more cost-effective in places where space utilisation is not so critical.

First of all, how do you find out the efficiency of a solar panel? It’s easy to find out this out for yourself. Remember that the power of a solar panel is given by the power you get out under ‘standard test conditions.’ This means the output is measure when the panel is exposed to a very bright light with an intensity of 1000 Watts per square meter (1000W/m2) at a temperature of 25oC. This is normally expressed in Watts (e.g. 185W or 230W etc) and is the power you will get when the sun is very strong. You can then multiply the module length and width (which is shown on the datasheet) to get the module area. By taking the module power in Watts and the standard test conditions of 1000W/m2 you can determine the module efficiency as follows;

Efficiency = power out / power in = module power / (width x length x 1000W/m2)

When evaluating solar panel efficiency its important to be aware that each solar cell has an efficiency higher than that of the whole solar panel (or module) due to empty space. Therefore make sure to find out which value you are looking at.

In general solar panels you will come across in the UK will be made of silicon (I have discussed thin film panels previously) so the discussion here will focus on these. The highest efficiency silicon solar panels on the market today are between 17% and 18% efficient. The efficiency of silicon solar panels is increasing due to R&D, but improvements are incremental and slow because there are a number of fundamental limitations to the efficiency of silicon solar cells which mean that any drastic improvements in the near future are unlikely. Perhaps I will describe those limitations in another article.

The main factor you will come across that affects module efficiency is whether the module is mono or multi-crystalline. In English this means that the solar cells can easy be made from mono or multi-crystalline silicon. Mono crystalline solar cells consist of a slice of a single, very pure silicon crystal and hence are very efficient due to few defects. Multi-crystalline solar cells, which comprise multiple crystals, are around 1-2% less efficient but are generally more cost-effective to produce. Personally I think it generally makes sense to use mono-crystalline cells for domestic installations where space is at a premium and multi-crystalline cells for larger installations.

Another factor that can affect efficiency is anti-reflective coatings. These are becoming more and more common. Nearly all solar cells have texturing directly on top of them that reduces reflection and now many solar panels come with anti-reflective glass. This generally consists of a textured glass that can be seen as a speckled pattern if you look closely. The improvement of anti-reflective coatings is hard to determine, although some manufacturers claim energy yield enhancements of over 5 percent.

When installing a solar panel system your ultimate goal should always be to get the best return on your investment, which means getting the most power for the lowest price without risking reliability and is dependent on many factors besides efficiency. Whilst there are a number of other technologies on the horizon that can be used to improve efficiency by small amounts, nothing will create a drastic change overnight. Prices of solar panels will continue to fall rapidly as production volume increases (in the same way as many other technology products such as computer memory) but these price falls will be matched by reductions in the feed-in tariff. Therefore don’t worry that installing today’s technology risks being superseded by a miracle solar panel tomorrow. Working in the industry gives you pretty good insight as to what is coming down the line.