Latest News from Across the Industry

Emily Sipple Emily Sipple

Solarport Ground Mount Systems

Solarport, founded in 2015 by a team of experts, has become a leading provider of solar ground mount solutions in the UK. Their systems support large scale commercial solar projects as well as smaller scale installations for homes and businesses. We're excited to welcome them to The Skill Group from May 2024!

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Emily Sipple Emily Sipple

Farm Rooftop Solar Grants Doubled

Great news for farmers and rural businesses as the UK Government have recently announced that the Improving Farm Productivity Round 2 grant (to improve agriculture technology) has been doubled to £220 million.

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Russell Parker Russell Parker

Myenergi’s Libbi Solar Battery Storage

Libbi is an eco-smart battery storage system, this means it makes decisions about when it provides and stores electricity based on how much energy you use and generate with your solar installation and the energy tariff you use. Myenergi allows you to use as much surplus solar electricity as possible, it is also built to integrate with your existing Myenergi devices such as the Myenergi Zappi EV charger or the Myenergi Eddi.

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Russell Parker Russell Parker

GivEnergy’s All In One Solar Battery Storage AIO

The GivEnergy All In One battery is designed to store excess generation from your generation source. The energy stored will then be discharged to meet demand when required, which prevents the need to import energy from the grid – in turn, saving you money!

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Russell Parker Russell Parker

Government Allowances on Solar Panels

For expenditure incurred from 1 April 2021 until the end of March 2023, companies canclaim 130% capital allowances on qualifying plant and machinery investments.

•Under the super-deduction, for every pound a company invests, their taxes are cut by up to 25p.

•This change makes the UK’s capital allowance regime more internationally competitive,lifting the net present value of our plant and machinery allowances from 30th in the OECDto 1st.

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Russell Parker Russell Parker

Are there still grants available for car chargers?

There are still grants avialble to certain installation types.

The EV chargepoint grant provides a 75% contribution to the cost of one chargepoint and its installation. A grant cap is set at £350 (including VAT) per installation.

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Russell Parker Russell Parker

Electric cars: Five big questions answered

In less than eight years, the government plans to ban the sale of all new petrol and diesel cars and vans and as part of this shift is promising to expand the network of public charging points to 300,000.

This means, in order to help the UK meet its 2050 net zero target, electric vehicles (EVs ) will soon become the most common option for anyone wanting to buy a brand new car.

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Russell Parker Russell Parker

Home Solar Systems Explained

In this article we want to explain how a solar panel system works in your home and what the different parts are and how they work.

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Russell Parker Russell Parker

What is Part P of the building regulations?

In 2005 the Government introduced electrical safety rules into the Building Regulations for England and Wales. Because of this, most fixed electrical installation work in homes must, by law, meet the Building Regulations.

Part P states that anyone carrying out electrical installation work in a home must make sure that the work is designed and installed to protect people from fire and electric shocks.

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Russell Parker Russell Parker

Solar Energy Calculator

This tool provides estimates for fuel bill saving and financial payments you may receive by installing a solar photovoltaic (i.e. solar PV) system. These figures are based on information you provide, using a number of assumptions to indicate potential benefits. This is to help you decide whether a solar PV system is suitable for you.

Use of the tool and its outputs is not a guarantee that you will see the exact same fuel bill savings and financial payments from the installation of your planned system.

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Russell Parker Russell Parker

Battery Storage with Solar Panels

Battery storage allows you to make the most of electricity that you generate by storing it, so that you can use the energy when you actually need it. Battery storage can work alongside a solar PV system, whether retro-fitted to an existing installation or fitted as part of a new installation. Storage ties in very well to the idea of the ‘smart home’.

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Russell Parker Russell Parker

Focus on MCS - Who are they and what do they do?

MCS, and the industry it works with, face interesting times.

The UK domestic renewable energy sector has radically changed since our organisation was formed in 2007. Since then nearly 1.2 million homes have been fitted with renewable energy technology and the cost of installations has dropped by approximately 65%.

Whilst hugely positive, these changes have led to some immediate challenges for us and our sector, as the UK Government has amended its renewable energy policies away from consumer incentives.

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Russell Parker Russell Parker

What Coatings Are Available For Solar Panels

The use of solar panels as an alternative source of energy and power has been embraced across the globe. This is because using solar energy reduces the level of emissions in the atmosphere in addition to being a reliable source of energy. Over time, however, solar panels accumulate dirt, which reduces their energy accumulation and production efficiency. To deal with this, solar panels are cleaned on a regular basis, which is usually after a week or so.

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Russell Parker Russell Parker

How to Ensure a Heat Pump Runs Efficiently

Heat pumps are a lot less complex than you might imagine, and usually any problems experienced are because the heat pump was set up incorrectly – not because it’s faulty. This can be daunting if you’re not particularly technically minded, or if you moved into the property and never had the system explained to you properly.

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Russell Parker Russell Parker

What are Hybrid Heat Pumps

The term ‘hybrid heat pump’ refers to a system that uses a heat pump alongside another heat source. Typically, it describes fitting a heat pump alongside a fossil fuel (gas, oil or LPG) boiler. This boiler could be an existing boiler, or you could be considering installing a new boiler at the same time as the heat pump.

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Russell Parker Russell Parker

How do heat pumps work?

A heat pump captures heat from outside and moves it into your home. It uses electricity to do this, however the quantity of heat delivered into your home is greater than the quantity of electricity used to power the system.

As a heat pump captures heat that is already present in the environment, the system itself emits no carbon dioxide emissions.

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