Solarcentury

Solarcentury is a business which designs and installs solar systems for buildings in the UK and continental Europe, and provides wholesale solar products.

History

The company was founded in 1998 by energy expert Jeremy Leggett (Chairman), to design and supply solar energy solutions for the built environment. Derry Newman joined the company in 2006 as CEO and led the company until April 2012. Before he has been with Sony Europe for over ten years. He was appointed Senior Vice President Operations, Sony Europe in 2003 and was subsequently appointed Managing Director, Sony United Kingdom in June 2004. In May 2012 Solarcentury appointed Frans van den Heuvel as new CEO. Van den Heuvel came from Dutch solar company Scheuten Solar where he was CEO. Van den Heuvel followed Derry Newman who retired in April 2012 to spend more time with his family.

The Solarcentury head office is in London UK, with other offices in Italy and France. It currently employs over 120 staff.

Solarcentury was established to address the threat of climate change by reducing CO₂ emissions through the application of solar energy; its purpose is to make a big difference in the fight against climate change and revolutionise the global energy market. Solarcentury works according to a strict set of principles and has gained a host of industry awards in recognition of its business and products. Awards and accreditations include ISO 9001 certification in 2010, the Queen's Award for Enterprise in 2011, listed in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 Award in 2011 and two years prior and over a number of previous years. Solarcentury has been recognised by EMAS (the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) as a company that is striving to continuously improve its environmental performance.

Innovation

Solarcentury specialises in building integrated solar photovoltaics (PV) for which it is the UK market leader. Systems are installed both on new buildings and are retro-fitted to existing buildings. Solarcentury supplies a complete range of products allowing solar to be installed on practically every type of roof, from pitched roofs on homes through to large flat or pitched commercial, industrial and agricultural buildings, to systems mounted at ground level.

Solarcentury has an in house innovation team that has developed its own product portfolio. The parts have been selected to ensure high power output and longetivity, the products have been developed to have high compatibility with a range of roof and tile styles, they have been rigorously tested to ensure they can withstand wind, fire and rain, and the installation methodology has been developed to ensure that the products are easy to install.

The most successful and well known product is undoubtedly the C21e solar photovoltaic tiles and slates for which they have won a host of awards. The C21e solar electric roof tile replaces 4 conventional roof tiles and screws straight to roof battens, making the installation of solar easier and more aesthetically pleasing than ever before. In 2008 a new version of the C21e was released for slate roofs that has proved a favourite on listed buildings and in conservation areas. In spring 2012 Solarcentury launched the C21 solar electric plain tile which offers installers a solution for when they want to integrate solar alongside traditional small format plain tiles. The C21e range won the Queen’s Award for Innovation in 2011.

Solarcentury is an accredited member of The Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS). All the products sold are certified by MCS, and all the members of its Installer Network are MCS accredited.

Solarcentury has evolved from a solar installation company to a business that project manages PV installations, manufacturers their own products and offers a distribution service to the growing number of MCS accredited installers in their Installer Network. They host webinars and provide on site training for roofers interested in installing solar on roof tops.

Charitable work

The founders of Solarcentury wrote into its constitution that the company would donate 5% of its net profit to set up a charity to help poor communities in developing countries access solar power. In 2006 Solarcentury made profit and SolarAid was born; a charity that increases access to solar PV technology to help combat climate change and alleviate poverty in rural Africa by installing solar on schools, community centres and clinics, and by creating jobs and businesses for people to generate income.

Installations

Solarcentury is the UK’s most experienced EPC contractor for ground mounted PV installations having installed multiple plants in the UK and Europe ranging from 50 kW ballasted systems to 5MW pile driven systems. Solarcentury developed the first ground mount project in Cornwall Wheale Jane, which was also one of the UK's first ground mount projects to be built on a brown field site. It was once the site of a famous tin mine, this solar park represents a shift to clean energy.

One of Solarcentury's newest projects includes the world’s largest solar bridge at Blackfrairs.The new Blackfriars station – which is being built on a bridge spanning the River Thames – is on its way to becoming the world’s largest solar bridge as Solarcentury begins the installation of over 4,400 solar photovoltaic (PV) panels.

Solarcentury have completed over 1000 large installations, and thousands of home installations, as well as 150 installations for schools through the Solar4Schools [1] programme. The total installed capacity at the end of 2008 was about 6 MWp.

The CIS Solar Tower.

One of the most well known Solarcentury installations is the CIS tower in Manchester, UK, where solar cladding was used to replace the old, damaged cladding and create a solar PV array with a generation capacity of 391 kWp.

The CIS project created the largest commercial solar facade in Europe, and is one of the largest PV systems in the UK. It demonstrates how Solar Rain Screen Cladding can be readily incorporated into building refurbishments to provide an extremely cost effective alternative to conventional cladding materials. The CIS solar tower will generate enough electricity to light 61 average three-bed houses every year. [2]

Other projects include the UK's first solar street of 23 new affordable, stylish and low carbon homes in Henley Way, Rotherham, built by South Yorkshire Housing Association’s (SYHA). Every home on the development has been installed with Solarcentury’s CompleteSolarRoof system. This is a low carbon building product which allows housebuilders to use solar photovoltaics (PV) and solar thermal to help reduce the carbon emissions of a new home by generating clean, renewable electricity in a silent and unobtrusive way. The CompleteSolarRoof from Solarcentury is a system of solar PV and solar thermal roof tiles that, to the observer, look exactly like standard roof tiles. However, consisting of C21e (solar electric) tiles and C21t (solar thermal) titles, the CompleteSolarRoof generates electricity and hot water for the home. Offering significant savings on the householder’s energy bills, the C21t tiles in a standard installation are expected to generate over 60% of the hot water requirements of the three-bedroom homes while the C21e tiles require just 8 m2 per kWp to generate 850kWh of electricity per year. It is expected that each house will generate 2,500kWh of electricity per year, equating to a saving of 1.5 tonnes of CO₂. Meanwhile, the excess electricity generated is not wasted, as it is simply exported to the national grid, which pays a fee back to the householder – making the savings twofold.

See also

• Solar energy
• Photovoltaics
• Solar thermal energy
• Building-integrated photovoltaics

External links

• Global website
• Solarcentury - UK's solar energy company