Looking to the sun for clean energy in the lush green hills of the countryside
THE jokes are easy to anticipate – solar energy in wet Wales? But despite the notorious rainy weather which yields the country’s quintessentially lush green hills and valleys, Wales is surging forward in the solar energy league.
According to the Energy Generation in Wales 2016 report, published in December 2017, Wales is making good progress towards its ambitious targets for clean energy. The report, which pro- vides an estimate of the sources of energy generation in Wales, states that 43% of the country’s electricity consumption in 2016 came from renewable energy – an increase on 32% the previous year.
The report also found that solar PV is the most common renewable technology in the country, accounting for 81% of renewable projects.
Surprisingly, this success comes on the back of an ongoing wave of UK Government reduction in support for renewables. Ever since feed-in tariff (FIT) rates were slashed back in 2011, UK Government support for renewables has been waning.
Renewable energy consultant Robert Speht points out that renewables were eschewed in favour of large-scale projects such as Hinkley power station.
There was an albeit grudging governmental nod for offshore wind – given that the UK leads in this sector. But onshore wind and solar energy were largely left to flounder, leading to significant job losses in these sectors in SMEs across the UK.
In November 2017, Lesley Griffiths, Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs, headed up a call for the UK Government to do more to support onshore wind and solar development.
So it is against this challenging backdrop, and despite UK Government-level resistance, that solar energy in Wales has managed to avoid the devastation that some were predicting for the sector.
This is partly due to the fact that solar PV doesn’t need to export to the grid – it can be consumed onsite – and also to the decreasing cost of components.
■ Innovators responding to a challenging marketplace
In some ways, the challenging marketplace has helped spawn innovative projects and collaborations that have put Wales on the solar energy map.
Glen Peters, CEO of Western Solar, is the brains behind one of Wales’ most innovative solar energy schemes.
Western Solar created Pentre Solar, a purpose-built solar-powered hamlet in Pembrokeshire, that captured national news headlines in 2017 for its innovative use of solar energy.
Mr Peters’ Western Solar journey started back in 2011, when he had recently retired from PWC. He focused his mind on finding a solution for social housing that would beat fuel poverty, help the environment and boost the local economy at the same time.
Creating a small project team comprising himself, an architect and an engineer, Mr Peters built a solar farm, which settled any doubts that the Welsh climate couldn’t support a solar energy project.
Western Solar then set to work to create Tŷ Solar – a prototype solar-powered house.
“We used tried and tested German ‘Passivhaus’ design processes to create a high-quality, well-insulated, airtight house made of locally-sourced timber and powered by solar energy,” says Mr Peters.
“We ended up with a prototype that produced 3.5 times the energy it actually used – but we didn’t get any interest from any of the housing developers. I think it was just too innovative – they were used to bricks and mortar and traditional build,” he explains.
Western Solar then decided to build a “solar village” as a living, breathing showcase of its ideas.
A disused cowshed was transformed into a factory to assemble timber frames, using locallysourced Douglas fir, and production got under way.
By 2017, Pentre Solar, a small solar hamlet of six homes a stone’s throw from the small village of Glanrhyd, was ready to open its doors to carefully selected families from Pembrokeshire’s social housing list.
Residents were rigorously interviewed to check they were 100%