Bright future for UK solar PV

With established producers, installers and integrators of PV products such as Sharp, Romag, Crystalox and Solar Century, and a growing number of smaller firms such as G24i and Quanta Sol focusing on next generation technologies, the UK is in a strong position to attract major international PV manufacturers looking to expand production capacity and market share.

The UK PV market has been growing at 25% per year. With world PV capacity predicted to grow from around 1,000 MW to over 40,000 MW by 2020, and the European market expected to be responsible for a significant portion of this, the opportunities for UK companies are clear.

While the UK is already home to thousands of small-scale 'off grid' PV applications such as navigation aids, the fastest-growing PV applications are grid-connected solar PV systems on new and existing domestic and commercial buildings. Leading examples in the UK include Manchester's CIS Tower, which has one of the largest PV façades in the world, the award-winning Environment Agency headquarters in Oxfordshire, and the thin-film façade at Optic Technium. The integration of PV as part of a building's fabric is set for substantial expansion, and the UK is moving towards having the capabilities to meet this demand both at home and abroad.

A number of factors have contributed to the UK's current position:

Innovative companies are developing novel approaches to existing technology and new kinds of organic solar cells. The UK leads the way with, for example, the largest automated building-integrated PV line in Europe, and the world's first next-generation solar cells manufacturing plant.
A collaborative research environment, facilitated by Government-supported organisations such as The Carbon Trust and the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) brings industry and academia together to tackle major technology challenges. The Sustainable Power Generation and Supply Initiative (SUPERGEN) aims to radically improve the sustainability of power generation and supply – two major multidisciplinary PV research programmes have been established, one concentrating on systems based on advanced silicon and thin film devices and the other looking at dye sensitised and organic solar cells.
An outward-looking industry and government keen to develop relationships with the USA, Japan and Europe, as well as high growth markets such as China, India and South Korea.
Tightening building regulations, with an ambition that all new homes will be carbon neutral by 2016, are creating a market pull for on-site energy generation.
Underpinning this success are high-tech service and component companies whose expertise enables organisations to test and optimise their PV systems. Active support for research commercialisation means that many new companies such as QuantaSol and SolarStructure, both spun out of Imperial College London, are also emerging. The low-cost dual-axial solar concentrator PV system developed by Reading University spin-out Whitfield Solar is also attracting attention as it contains one hundredth of the silicon used in conventional flat panel systems.

The UK has a particular focus on 'next generation' technologies centring on advanced systems based on inorganic nanostructures and organic systems which promise broader and lower-cost applications for PV. Some researchers at centres of excellence such as the New and Renewable Energy Centre (NaREC) are focusing on scaling up mass production processes for mono and polycrystalline solar cells, which currently represent 94% of the market.

Others are developing thin-film silicon cells and other thin-film technologies based on semiconductors such as cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper indium diselenide (CIS) and copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS).

At the Centre for Renewable Energy Systems (CREST) at Loughborough University, research teams have developed world-record flexible thin-film solar cells on plastic foils.

UK solar PV companies interested in developing international and UK trade links should contact Trade Promoter John Buckley retps@ukrenewables.com or call +44 (0)1664 565083.

For further information about UK inward investment opportunities in solar PV, contact UK Trade & Investment Sector Champion Adam Brown.