In the wake of the U.K.'s growing reputation as Europe's hottest solar market in 2014, Swiss inverter manufacturer SolarMax has revealed that more than 65 MW of its inverters were successfully installed across Britain in the first quarter of the year.
Rolled out in time to beat the March 31 reduction of the U.K. Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) subsidy which dropped from 1.6 ROC to 1.4 ROC on April 1 SolarMax commissioned five ground-mounted solar PV projects, installing enough solar capacity to generate clean electricity for 25,000 U.K. households a year.
The company installed its SolarMax 720TS-SV Compact Stations at each site. These inverters have proven particularly popular in cost-conscious U.K. thanks to their compact design, light weight and high quality, making them quick and easy to install. SolarMax engineers were on hand to provide technical support and expertise throughout the duration of the installation process, ensuring deadlines were hit ahead of the 1.6 ROC deadline.
"We are delighted that all of the solar farms were delivered, installed and commissioned on schedule," said SolarMax U.K. regional manager, Martin Allman. "This success is in no small part down to the excellent onsite collaboration and professionalism of SolarMax engineers in spite of the usual problems with adverse weather and difficult site conditions."
Despite the documented rush to meet the 1.6 ROC deadline, neither SolarMax nor many other global solar companies are quite done with the U.K. solar market this year. SolarMax revealed plans for a "significant pipeline" for the new ROC year, which will see the company roll-out a number of its new products ("we are seeing huge interest in our new 30/32 kW HT string inverters, which will be available in the U.K. from June this year," admitted Allman), while numerous other companies view the U.K. as one of their most lucrative markets.
Such developments come just days after solar analysts NPD Solarbuzz stated that the U.K will be Europe's largest PV market in 2014, with analyst Finlay Colville telling pv magazine that he expects the installation of more than 2.8 GW of PV capacity for the year.
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