Solar PV Feed In Tariffs - Good or Bad?

jamesingram

PV Crystalox Solar grow ingots in Oxfordshire , Romag, Sharp , Triple solar assemble in the UK, so there's a bit here. But thats by the by.
Take a look at REC , a Swedish company for improvement in manifacturing process of Pv cell etc. Claim to bring the EROI down to 1 year ish
How about comsumer interested being a factor in increased capital investment in research by industry . Consumer interest being stimluated in the case of PV by various government subsidising schemes throughout the world.

Cardew

HalloweenJack wrote: »

sharp panels are made in the uk not just assembled....

It depends how you define 'made'?

Are Toyota cars 'made' in Debyshire, or Nissans in the North East British cars.?

The Sharp factory in Wrexham does not manufacure the PV cells, but assemble them in the panels and distribute them.

From: Andrew Lee, General Manager of Sharp Solar

Sharp has also confirmed that it is planning to launch higher efficiency cells that will see modules of over 200W available.

The cells are due to arrive from Japan at the close of the year and will include back contacted cells for greater performance. And Lee went on to say that 300W modules are set to be released for next year, too.

The new higher efficiency modules will be manufactured at both the new and the current Wrexham plant and will be phased into production alongside existing lines when shipments arrive.

I live near Wrexham and the factory was built in Wales with a huge Regional grant.

jamesingram

Here some figures
2010 UK electricity generation
Fuel used 922,788 GWh
Supplied (net) 361,112 GWh

So I'd like to offer the onsite mircogeneration view point , as a possible solution to part of the above inefficient use of finite resources.

OK, storage and matching demand is currently a problem , but i believe the more energy supplied to a building or task by local mircogeneration will result in a reduction in the demand upon and thus the inefficiencies of the traditional generation and national grid supply structure.
Lets call it a bottom up approach to the national energy supply conumdrum.
If we just consider buildings for now (approx 30% of UK energy requirements)
Using design to reduce a buildings energy demand , PV can then be one of a number of measures to create an energy automonus building,
possibly even a energy exporting building.
So this wont be happening over night ( probably not at all ) , but it could be a goal to work toward.
Thus in the future removing the 30% demand of the built environmet from the UK traditonal generation/grid setup .

Hurrah for PV

zeupater

grahamc2003 wrote: »

Did I really? I thought I said we wouldn't make solar cells in the uk, but we could have an assembly function here. Must be mistaken, as must Sharp themselves, who, on their website, says Sharp in the UK solder together Japanese manufactured cells.

Unfortunately, the Wrexham assembly factory has recently announced plans for 500 redundancies (accoprding to the Wrexham local rag - anyone have any more definitive information?), leaving the workforce halved. Not very nice at all, but it does illustrate (yet again) that businesses dependent on subsidies simply downsize with the subsidy. It's hardly rocket science. And the subsidies are hardly building a sustainable business, now are they?

Anyhow, think I'll go for a spin in the DeLorien.

Hi

Regarding .... "we wouldn't make solar cells in the uk" ... Cough .... http://www.pvcrystalox.com/about_us/our_business/ ..... maybe not slitting the wafers, but where are the ingots manufactured ? ....

Apart from that, by what measure would you classify a product as being 'maufactured in UK', or 'made in UK' as opposed to being 'assembled in UK' .... would it be by value of components ?(that would likely be UK then ), by weight ? ?(that would likely be UK then ), by percentage of factory gate ex-works cost ? ?(that would likely be UK then ), or anything else ? .......

Regarding 'downsizing', considering that Sharp are one of the largest panel manufacturers having three panel manufacturing plants on a global basis with the majority of production from Wrexham going to export (mainly Europe) then the current UK situation regarding FiTs and UK subsidy levels is not the likely cause ....

HTH
Z

albyota

The Sharp panels, (along with some others), may be assembled here in the UK,.......But, they are then shipped over to Germany for TÜV Rheinland testing to get their

Certification and qualification to
international standards
Power rating of PV modules

Characterization of PV cells
Ammonia testing

The endurance test consists of four partial
component tests that simulate the types of
environmental effects that might cause a
drop in output performance.

1. Damp heat test
2. Thermal cycling test
3. Humidity freeze test

4. Bypass diode test
IEC Certification.

and then back to the UK again.......some CO2 emmissions there then........:eek:

don0301

@grahamc2003

haha

keep the salient facts coming

ps thanks for subsidising my FiT

zeupater

albyota wrote: »

The Sharp panels, (along with some others), may be assembled here in the UK,.......But, they are then shipped over to Germany for TÜV Rheinland testing to get their

Certification and qualification to
international standards
Power rating of PV modules

Characterization of PV cells
Ammonia testing

The endurance test consists of four partial
component tests that simulate the types of
environmental effects that might cause a
drop in output performance.

1. Damp heat test
2. Thermal cycling test
3. Humidity freeze test

4. Bypass diode test
IEC Certification.

and then back to the UK again.......some CO2 emmissions there then........:eek:

Certification testing for 'type approval' etc, the above referenced post would be like saying that cars are sent to MIRA for testing before delivery .... panels are flash tested and graded on the line as part of the production process.

HTH
Z

don0301

Cardew wrote: »

It depends how you define 'made'?

Are Toyota cars 'made' in Debyshire, or Nissans in the North East British cars.?

The Sharp factory in Wrexham does not manufacure the PV cells, but assemble them in the panels and distribute them.

From: Andrew Lee, General Manager of Sharp Solar



I live near Wrexham and the factory was built in Wales with a huge Regional grant.

Goods are deemed to have been manufactured or produced in the country in which they last underwent a treatment or process resulting in a substantial change.

ps thanks for subsidising my FiT

albyota

I take your point ze, re flash testing on the production line, it is amazing how easily one (me) can be misinformed, I take it that its only when a modification/new model, Wattage, Module, Frame, Glass, forces a new certificate...?

albyota

don0301 wrote: »

@grahamc2003

haha

keep the salient facts coming

ps thanks for subsidising my FiT

This type of post is childish and insensitive and does nothing for your credibility.

I too have PV, but please....don't tempt fate, if the FITs are removed from existing contracts in the future, you'll be the first to moan.