Reducing the installed cost of PV systems: A UK installers' experience

摘要

Sustainable Energy Installations (SEI) has been installing PV systems in the UK since 2001. There is significant pressure both from customers and from the UK government (via the Solar Grants funding programme) to reduce the installed cost of systems. SEI has found a number of innovative ways to achieve this without compromising on quality of systems or on service to the customer. The principal mechanisms employed by SEI and examined in this paper are: Grouped domestic installations; Use of standard, off-the-shelf PV products; Network of qualified installation staff. Grouping of installations can result in significant cost savings, for example SEI has just completed the largest grouped domestic PV installation in the UK comprising of 100 PV systems on one housing estate. SEI focuses on using standard PV modules and laminates rather than specially designed PV products as these are of much lower cost in the current market. SEI works with an electrical contracting firm using trained electricians as installation staff with supervision by staff with many years PV installation experience, and uses local installation staff wherever possible.