Opinion

Open for business

StevePester
Steve Pester, BRE, describes the aims of BRE’s National Solar Centre

The big news in renewables at BRE at the moment is that by the time you read this the BRE National Solar Centre (NSC) will be open for business. As a reminder, the centre’s purpose is to be the main source of reliable information on all things solar for professionals operating in the UK market. For example we will be conducting side-by-side trials of products and obtaining performance data from real systems across the UK.

The NSC will also be linking in with universities, other research centres and solar organisations across Europe in order to filter and channel reliable information for the UK industry. Another strand to the centre’s activities will be the provision of due diligence services to companies funding or developing large-scale PV projects.

The centre has already secured some European funding via ERDF, but in order to release that support we now also need some match funding from organisations who would like to be involved in research projects, trials, writing industry guides, etc.

Some topics of special interest are:

– Product performance and longevity testing
– System performance monitoring
– BIPV products and systems
– Energy storage solutions
– Grid integration

As an industry-focused centre of excellence the centre is completely open to ideas and suggestions from industry and will endeavour to develop the best suggestions.

Further information on the NSC can be found at: www.bre.co.uk/nsc, or write to us at nsc@bre.co.uk