UK company wins award

Press release

Solarcentury's integrated solar photovoltaic tile, C21e wins the coveted 'Best Sustainable Product Award' at Ireland's Construct Building Exhibition.

Last week solarcentury won Best Sustainable Product Award for their C21e solarelectric fully integrated roofing tile at Construct, Northern Ireland's major construction show. Following Secretary of State, Peter Hain's recent
announcementof £59 million for the promotion of renewable energy in Northern
Ireland, this product's accolade will provide the construction market with an
opportunity to embrace Northern Ireland's renewables revolution without
compromising the aesthetics of their development.

This latest award builds on a host of accolades for C21e including Best Exterior Product atInterbuild 2004 and Building Magazine's award for Innovation in their2005 sustainability awards.

C21e is the most efficient (21.5%), easy to install and cost effective solar tile on the market. The latest iteration of the C21e tile blends unnoticeably withconventional concrete tiles. solarcentury's advanced C21e design has been developed with aesthetics and efficiency as the primary concern. The cells are all black incolour with electronic contacts positioned behind a black tedlar backing. This completely eliminates solar reflection, maximising energy production within the given tile area, thereby requiring less than 10 square metres of C21e to generate a quarter of an average 3 bedroom homes electricity requirements. The application of these discrete solar photovoltaic tiles provides all the benefits of a 'bolt-on' solar systems, used in eco-home schemes such as BedZED, without affecting the 'rooflines' or appearance of the development.

Major housing developers including St James and Barratts are now testing
this new technology on their show houses as part of their drive to deliver more
sustainable homes.

Policies such as The Merton Rule (see http://www.themertonrule.org/) are encouraging a massive uptake in renewable technology as over 80 councils are in the process of implementing pro-renewable planning guidelines.

The thermal version of solarcentury's C21 tile (C21t) will make it's debut at Interbuild 2006 (April 23-27th 2006) providing a fully integrated 'Complete SolarRoofTM'. The combination of the two tiles (C21e & C21t) will deliver renewably generated heat and electricity to homeowners at a time when rising fuel prices are causing major panic in the energy industry.

The C21 product range 'future proofs' a home against such rises by fixing the prices that householders will pay for fuel over the 50 year lifetime of the product.

Eco-friendly Electricity

So, you want to do your bit for the environment and use renewable energy, but you can't afford to install solar, wind, or other means of green power in your home - what can you do?

Well, there is something you can do, you can do it right now, and you can make a difference!

With the deregulation of the UK's energy market you can choose who supplies your electricity, and make your voice heard with your money.

"The other thing that not many people realise is that we can now all choose who supplies our electricity, and therefore how it's made, so wherever you live in the country you can actually choose to have your home or business supplied by clean energy. The funny thing is switching takes about five minutes but it's the biggest single step you can take to reduce your emissions and protect the environment."

There are several green suppliers about, but only one that stands out for value AND their future plans, and that company is Ecotricity. Why Ecotricity you may ask?
Well, Ecotricity was formed in 1996, and have so far (Q4 2005) invested in and constructed 11 windfarms with more at planning stage and construction starting on several other projects.
Just click the previous link and take a look! (link opens in new window).

"Wind is an abundant source of energy that will never run out. It's also the world's fastest growing energy source and in the UK we're lucky enough to have around 40%of Europe's wind resource, potentially enough to power the country 3 or 4 times over".

There are other 'green' suppliers including; Green Energy UK, and Good Energy, but both of these companies have 'bought into' the green energy market by purchasing existing renewable sources including wind and hydro (water) from other companies. Their actual investment in new projects has so far been zero. An interesting comparison of green and traditional suppliers (including their 'green' efforts) can be found at www.whichgreen.org.

Ecotricity promise to match the price of every regional supplier, so therefore it should cost you no more than you currently pay, they also promise to invest the profits from you back into renewable resources, therefore increasing the amount of UK energy produced by environmentally friendly means.

So make a difference now - change your electricity supplier to Ecotricity and you know you are not only making a difference, but your money is also being invested in all our futures.

Further interesting facts and figures regarding electricity and wind power can be downloaded from here . ( in PDF format - Free Adobe Acrobat Reader required: www.adobe.com )

Homebuilding & Renovating Show

The Homebuilding and Renovating Show is being held at the National Exhibition Center (NEC), from the 2nd to the 5th March 2006, and includes The Green Village.

In the words of the shows organisers:

"Make your ultimate dream home a reality now. Whether you are building a home from scratch, extending or improving your existing home or taking on a conversion or renovation development - The National Homebuilding & Renovating Show is the perfect place to source the right products, services and advice you’ll need to get your project underway!"

The reason for posting this event is that there are two features that make this event worthy of note - as well as the usual plotfinder
stands, and other useful resources, the one is the range of seminars, which will surely interest anyone thinking or planning to build their
own eco-friendly home, some examples of which are below:

• A beginner’s guide to building your dream home


• Finding and assessing land and renovation opportunities


• Modern heating plumbing and ventilation/climate control


• How to design your dream home - the fundamentals of good house design


• A guide to ecological home design and sustainable construction

The other thing that stood out about this exhibition is an area within the main exhibition called The Green Village:

"Discover how you can create a sustainable and eco-friendly home. See over 30 companies representing eco-friendly and fair traded products and services such as: solar heating, alternative heating systems, wood burning stoves, timber log frame, natural paints, insulation, thatching, recycled materials, UFH, rainwater systems, waste systems, windows, skylights, books and many more. For anyone renovating or building a new home, the Green Village will provide you with all your ecological building solutions."

So, get yourself off to the Homebuilding and Renovating Show at the NEC, Birmingham (UK) and see if there is anything in the Green Village, that you can utilise in your own home to make a more sustainable and/or greener future for yourself - or go the whole hog and build something from scratch!

Tickets are £8.00 each and can be booked in advance from the NEC box office.

Solar Power - Part 1

We have all heard of Solar power, but what is it, how does it work, and why use it?

Solar is defined as; derived from or related to the sun or utilizing the energies of the sun. Therefore, anything that manages to harness the power of the sun may be called Solar Power.

The 3 Main Types of Solar Power

There are 3 main types of solar energy systems:

1. Solar Water Heating.
2. Solar Cells (Photovoltaic).
3. Solar Concentrator Systems.

The first two types are commonly used for household and general business installations, whereas the last (Solar Concentrator Systems) is for large industrial, or solar energy farms and solar power station applications. A brief explanation of each:

1. Solar Water Heating.

Solar water heating in its simplist form is a flat coated metal panel, insulated underneath and with pipes containing water lying on the surface. As the panel heats from the sun, so does the water held in the pipes. The water is circulated over the panels, and back into the buildings hot water system.

A more advanced (and therefore more expensive) system uses very well insulated evacuated glass tubes. The collector plate is held within the tubes vaccum, and so heat loss is virtually eliminated due to the vaccum and insulation.

In the UK, it is estimated that you can save about 50% of all water heating bills. Both of these types of panel are suitable for home use, and are also available in the UK. This type of system is also great for underfloor heating, general water heating, or even to heat a swimming pool, which is something to consider.


2. Solar Cells

Usually referred to as Photovoltaic cells/panels (PV), which are composed of specially formulated cells that produce an electric current when light falls upon them. These are the same technology that a solar powered calculator uses for power, only on a larger scale.

The majority of pv solar panels are silicon based, although other materials have or are being used, especially as research and development in this area progresses. Recently scientists have discovered how to acheive similar results using a type of plastic composite which is also able to use the infra-red spectrum, previously not within the ability of existing panels, and thereby making them even more efficient than many current designs.

All of this development means that the overall cost of an installation is rapidly decreasing, especially as demand increases allowing photovoltaic panels to be used for far more projects, including domestic use.


3. Solar Concentrator Systems

Concentrator systems are generally commercial installations or for large solar electrical generators.

This site is primarily concerned with houses and domestic systems, so for anyone interested in what these are, and how they work can follow this link to read all about Concentrating Solar Power.


The UK recieves a vast amount of radiation from the sun over the course of a year, this means that even somewhere as weather challenged as the UK is able to benefit enormously from using either type of solar energy system stated above.

Next ... part 2 - domestic installations, diagrams, selling or storing your excess power.