We are a company in the development stage, pre-trading stage of renewable energy products. Funding was awarded to solve the problem of reducing our carbon footprint and using more and more imported products to reduce our energy consumption of fossil fuels. As 46% of carbon emissions come from heat we focussed our design on SOLAR THERMAL products as part of the carbon reduction targets set by the EU.
Question still remains, where is it possible to obtain UK funding to support product testing which conform to the UK MCS - MICROGENERATION CERTIFICATION SCHEME ACCREDITATION.
THESE SOLAR THERMAL PANELS NEED BOTH EUROPEAN SOLAR KEY MARK AND UK MICROGENERATION CERTIFICATION SCHEME ACCREDITATION.
UK based certification bodies can only complete 2 of the necessary 3 stages of approval.
Here is the directive from UK based certification bodies for the approval of MCS accreditation;
WATER HEATING THERMAL SOLAR PANEL UK MADE MUST have the correct approved certification so manufacturers can be placed on the UK MCS - MICROGENERATION CERTIFICATION SCHEME ACCREDITATION manufacturing list.
It is a problem for UK based manufacturing companies like ourselves as follows;
PRODUCT UNIT TESTING - MUST CONFORM TO MCS 011 - Impossible to achieve here in the UK.
UK based certification bodies are NOT approved to carry out MCS 011 tests and inspections. Leaving testing to be done by an approved solar key mark testing lab. There are 16 approved test labs in Europe, none are approved in the UK.
Barnsley Council will assist with providing the necessary buildings and premises for approval certification bodies to carry out the test case trials. Where applicable they will also assist with further trails for the social housing fuel poverty to cut heating costs.
Once these 3 accreditation stages have been completed this will allow manufacturing in Darton, Barnsley, Yorkshire.
Main Business Activity = Manufacturing Renewable Products for the UK domestic, industrial and business market.
BRITISH DESIGNED AND MADE SOLAR THERMAL PANELS ARE A REAL WINNER.
Example;
YHMP awards York on the 11 February 2010 finalist in the Best Product award.
Yorkshire and Humber Microgeneration Partnership.
The sponsors of this event were Energy Savings Trust and YHMP members.
REA awards London on the 10 June 2010 finalist in the Best Product award.
BRITISH Renewable Energy Association.
It was said by the renewable energy awards presentation judging panel;
By no means is it an easy feat to get into these REA awards.
All the nominees have done really well to get this far which attracted a
large number of high quality nominees from the renewable energy industry.
From small businesses to multi-nationals the judges found that this 2010
awards was bigger and better than previous years.
www.r-e-a.net/events/awards/product-award
The efficiency of the system is to achieve maximum performance for British requirements, where as imported solar panels and systems are designed for a more warmer climate, and they are typically imported from Germany, USA or China.
Please click on this CEN Kitemark scheme for solar thermal products link. www.estif.org/solarkeymark
then see the list of approved suppliers by clicking on this link;
www.estif.org/solarkeymark/Links/Internal_links/database/collector-database-updated.htm
Check out how many are UK made and how many are imported, yes even the ones with UK addresses are imported. This is why the original grant was awarded, to solve the problem of using more and more imported products to reduce our energy consumption and carbon footprint.
In our opinion importing solar made products is environmentally irresponsible.
READ MORE BY CLICKING ON OUR WEBSITE PAGE UNDERSTANDING THE PROCESS.
