In 2014 the UK market grew by 80 percent compared with 2013 and reached a capacity of 5.2 GW. Today, we see that the overall costs of installing and maintaining a PV system are reducing and close to reaching parity with the historical trend of fossil fuel generation costs.
Equinox Instruments is the Kipp & Zonen distributor for the UK and Ireland and has seen an extraordinary increase in sales of pyranometers to a new, and expanding, customer base. Many of these customers are recently started UK offices of established solar energy companies in Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Greece. They see opportunities for growth in the UK, whereas their home markets are maturing or suffering during to the economic recession.
We also identified a knowledge gap in the measurement of solar radiation at PV plants. Most of the people involved have an electrical engineering background but know relatively little about the radiation coming from the sun, what arrives at the earth’s surface, and how to measure it. Therefore, we needed to offer some training to increase the technical and practical understanding of monitoring solar radiation with pyranometers.
In partnership with Kipp & Zonen, we decided to hold a one-day PV Workshop in Bristol which lies between the main PV company offices in London and the South East and the larger PV sites in the South West of the UK. With good road and rail links in and out of Bristol and the conference venue booked, invitations were sent out to 50 potential participants. We received 40 confirmations, which meant that with the people from Equinox and Delft the room would be full!
As can be expected, some people subsequently had to cancel due to other commitments arising. However, on that particular day there was an unexpected strike that shut down the London Underground system and most of the trains to the South and South West, including Bristol! Despite this, 25 of the registered attendees made a great effort to get to the workshop. To allow for the later arrivals, we extended the welcome refreshment time but shortened the lunch buffet and coffee breaks.
The workshop's program
The initial presentations covered the purpose of the Workshop, an introduction to Kipp & Zonen, the radiation produced by the sun, and how our atmosphere and weather affects the energy that reaches the surface. We then delved into how solar radiation measurement instruments work and the different types for measuring direct, diffuse and global short-wave radiation and long-wave thermal radiation.
This was followed by explanations of the ISO standards related to the performance classification of pyranometers and their calibration. Related to this is the topic of most interest to many of the participants, and generating the most discussion. How to estimate the uncertainties of the irradiance measurements made by the different classifications of pyranometers and how these can be minimised. There was a special emphasis on plane of array (POA) measurements as these are used as inputs to calculate the plant efficiency.
During the buffet lunch break the attendees took the opportunity to look at and discuss a range of pyranometers, data loggers and accessories that were on display.
The afternoon session covered practical issues of mounting, cables, grounding, maintenance and interfacing. The issues of data logger performance, data acquisition and data processing also produced a lot of discussion.
A lively question and answer session followed and, although the Workshop had originally been scheduled to close at 15:30, many people were still there when we had to vacate the room at 18:00 and a few hardy souls continued in the bar afterwards!
We would like to thank everybody who made considerable efforts to attend, on a day that was difficult for travel, and for their active participation in making such a successful event.
Customer feedback
“Great to see you yesterday and thanks indeed for organising such an informative industry gathering.”
“Great content, great delivery, great side line education during the breaks, great venue, great food. Nice little touch at the end with the phone charger, handy. It’s not often that pretty much everything about the production turns out so well.”
“Thank you for your time yesterday, I found it very informative and learnt many new things.”
“Thank you for organizing this very interesting workshop.”
Blog witten by Matthew Redgrave, UK Sales Manager at Equinox Instruments Limited.