Second PV array to feed electric car

11 Oct 2013: Somebody called Trevor wrote a comment on an earlier posting of mine on my ChargingtheEarth blog and he has directed me to an interesting blog about his electric Renault Zoe car. (I don't care if he works for Renault, the posting is about installing PV).
http://myrenaultzoe.com/index.php/category/climate-change/solar/
He has PV fitted in 2010, and that is the usual grid connected system with the Feed in Tariff. He has recently added extra panels on the north roof, because the 2010 system took up his entire south roof. He has kept solar generating metering records since the start, and house electricity records since 2008. It isn't clear if the second PV panel array is added to the original 3.7kW system as a grid connected system, because as far as I know, this would alter the terms of his original F.I.T agreement. As the blog is mostly about the electric car, I guess that this is to reduce his small running cost of the car.

Eco-Kinetics putting PV on a rail station

http://www.eco-kinetics.co.uk/commercial-solar-panels/network-rail-1/
I heard about this project frmoAlex Mungo of Eco Kinetics, St Albans.
Eco-Kinetics specialize in installing Solar PV Systems, Solar Energy, Solar Panels and Solar Power systems for residential and commercial entities. They were recently successful in winning a tender for the installation of a trial system at one of Network Rail’s maintenance depots, which along with other energy reduction measures will help to reduce energy costs and carbon emissions at the site.

With a tilt frame mounting, and some active decisions to modify the angles every couple of months, this should be an efficient system. 

 See: http://www.eco-kinetics.co.uk/commercial-solar-panels/network-rail-1/

Electrical generation in Broxtowe, Nottingham

April 2013: It is good to see St Anns, a district of Nottingham making a news item on a website covering sustainable topics world wide. One small problem - it is not St Anns, it is Fenwick Rd in Broxtowe.

Image from Sustainable Cities Collective website by photographer Michael Jenkins

"When you think of tough neighbourhoods and burroughs like the Bronx in New York, or St Ann’s in Nottingham, you don’t necessarily equate them with energy efficient living. If you consider it living at all, it is most certainly not energy efficient living. However, it is in Nottingham, England that the city council has made an innovative move in making homes in this, once slum but heavily low socioeconomic, area highly sustainable and energy efficient."
Actually, the photograph and the installation is in Broxtowe, in Fenwick Road and Close.
See the full story:
http://sustainablecitiescollective.com/global-site-plans-grid/136526/power-empowering-impoverished

PV roof over supermarket

Feb 2013: This seems like a good idea! Large supermarkets have high electrical costs with all their chillers, hot deli counters, lighting, check-out equipment etc. If they can generate enough to counterbalance this, and provide a bit more on the side, then it's good for profits and it's good PR for the company - and significantly reduces the load on the nearby power station.

What better idea than to make the vast acres of roof into a PV generating roof. And if you're thinking of taking it further, the car parking can double up as a power generating surface while allowing shoppers to get from their cars in shelter from summer sun and winter rains.
   This is the 340kW installation at the Edeka Krawczyk supermarket rooftop in Schwabach, Germany. The installation used 2,500 thin-film CIS modules and was connected to the grid in July 2012. The city of Schwabach has nominated the solar project for its biennial environment award.

Solar companies to sue government

23 Jan 2013: Guardian article
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jan/23/solar-companies-feed-in-tariff-cuts
17 companies suing the British government for £140million. 2012 has been a bad year for the solar industry, not just because of the endless rainfall, but because Osborne cut away most of the incentive provided by the Feed in Tariff - causing immense problems for the Renewables industry which had geared up to meet the demand.