Both systems were supplied and installed by SolarUK, who design and manufacture the award-winning LaZer2 solar thermal collectors. 

Planet Energy Solutions specializes in the design and installation of sustainable energy systems, offering clients technical advice on technologies including wind turbine, heat pump and wood fired boiler systems, as well as other sustainable living systems such as water harvesting and living roofs.

The photovoltaic system installed at the house features 14 panels mounted on a south-facing pitched roof.  From April the Government’s Clean Energy Cash Back scheme, better known as the Feed-in Tariff (FIT), will pay a fixed rate for the electricity this system generates.

The system has been sized to match the current annual usage, which has been halved in the last three years, so it is expected that all the power generated will be consumed at the property and that there will be no annual electricity surplus – though any surplus that does occur will be exported to the national grid.   

The Feed-in Tariff revenue and energy bill savings expected from this PV system amount to a combined benefit of around £1500 a year and will reduce CO₂ emissions by 1500 kg/yr.

As part of the installation Mr. Almond also had a solar hot water system fitted to provide the domestic hot water for the house.  The 3-collector array, consisting of 27 LaZer2 solar thermal vacuum tubes, manufactured at SolarUK’s Sussex factory, is expected to achieve an annual yield of around 2000 kWh, reducing CO₂ emissions by 360kg/yr and enabling the investment to have paid for itself within about 12 years.

Solar thermal is among the green technologies set to benefit from the Government’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), expected to start in April 2011.  As with the Feed-in Tariff system, it is proposed that owners of zero carbon heat generation installations will receive guaranteed payments for the heat energy they produce.

By 2020 the Government aims to have increased the amount of heat generated by renewables from the current 0.6% to 20%, with the RHI making an important contribution to achieving this target.

As Tony Almond says: “I’ve been running Planet Energy Solutions, a Renewable Energy Systems Project Management business, for almost four years and from the start aimed to support UK and European businesses if at all possible, whether that be a wind turbine, a wood pellet boiler or a living sedum roof.”

“Having preached to professional audiences on the various low carbon technologies for a few years now, the time arrived when I really had to ‘put my money where my mouth was’ and have these systems installed myself.”

“The new FIT and RHI incentives make it a good time to have a system that satisfies our needs, but not to oversize them to the extent of becoming a net exporter. As we’ve seen, rules and life situations alter, so I wanted the ability to expand if things change in the future.

“Both systems have been working for two weeks now and we’ve seen them perform in snowy, overcast and blue sky conditions.  In that time the Lazer2 solar thermal array has generated 39kWh of heat energy whilst the photovoltaic system array has generated 88kWh, which is a very good start.  Roll on the summer!”