UK solar industry launches new initiative to raise standards Published:  04 July, 2016 The UK solar industry is celebrating its third ‘Solar Independence Day’ (Monday 4 July), the country’s annual celebration of solar energy, with the launch of a new initiative. To mark the occasion, which will see people all over the country post photos using the #SolarIndependence hashtag, the Solar Trade Association (STA) has launched its latest initiative to raise standards in the maintenance of big rooftop and ground mount solar systems. It is estimated that the UK now has almost 12GW of solar PV installed across homes, offices, schools, warehouses and on solar farms. This is enough to power the equivalent of 3.8 million homes and new analysis by MyGridGB for the STA has shown that solar generation peaked early last month at 23.9% of UK electricity demand – a new record for the UK. According to the latest statistics, there are currently just over 800,000 homes with solar PV and 200,000 with solar thermal systems, which means that the UK now has just over 1 million solar homes. The STA is keen to raise awareness of the fact that good quality operation and maintenance of solar systems is essential to ensuring their performance, longevity and safe working condition. The body wants to ensure that the sector goes beyond minimum standards and establishes best practice to raise the bar in this sector, and today launching its new initiative ‘Raising Standards in Solar PV Operations and Maintenance’, to build on the work that EU-level body SolarPower Europe has done. Mark Turner, chair of the STA’s Operations & Maintenance Working Group, and managing director of Lightsource Renewable Energy, said: “With this initiative we want to raise standards and establish best practice across the UK in solar PV operations and maintenance, making sure people are aware that preventative action can avoid costly corrective action later. Solar PV plants have no moving parts but are power plants like any other, and therefore safety has to be our primary concern.” Paul Barwell, CEO of the STA, commented: “The UK has successfully deployed almost 12GW of solar across the UK, providing nearly 25% during peak generation. This is what the country and the world needs to decarbonise the energy sector at the lowest price to the consumer. The government’s adoption of the fifth carbon budget is a good long term signal in this regard. “Solar Independence Day is about celebrating what a large group of small and medium sized businesses can achieve in a short period of time. We now need just one more push from the Government to help the solar sector reach its objective of zero subsidy by the early 2020s.” More details of the new initiative can be found online at: http://www.solar-trade.org.uk/category/resource-centre/ Source link

Total returns for buy to let property in England and Wales rose to 9.57% in the 12 months to the end of March, according to the latest buy to let index to be published. Overall buy to let portfolios fell 0.31% month on month, were up by 2.31% quarter on quarter, and by 9.57% year on year, the data from the Property Partner residential market index shows. The growth over 12 months has been led by London where buy to let returns increased by 16.49%, followed by the East of England with a rise of 13.18%, the South East 12.1% and the East Midlands 8.59%. The North West was not far behind with a rise of 8.44% and the South West at 8.42%. The West Midlands saw a rise of 6.08%, Yorkshire and Humberside 4.51% and the North East 2.57%. According to Rob Weaver, Property Partner’s director of investment the strong growth in the year to March 2016 was probably affected by property investors rushing to beat April’s additional home stamp duty deadline. ‘This was especially true of London, where annual returns were in double digits, reaching an eye-watering 16.5%. The East was strong too, and from first hand experience the Northern Powerhouse regeneration plan is boosting investment activity in the North West and in particular Manchester,’ he said. He pointed out that monthly figures can be volatile. ‘What’s clear is that regional disparities in the housing market are widening, with Yorkshire and Humberside and the North East regions looking fragile,’ he explained. He also pointed out that property investors are showing caution ahead of the referendum in June on the future of the UK’s position in the European Union. ‘But the fundamentals of high employment, wage growth, cheap borrowing and the chronic shortage of supply remain in place and are positive,’ he added. The index is the first regular dataset to combine rental income and capital growth to show the total rate of return of residential property investments over time. It is based on research carried out by the property crowdfunding platform Property Partner of Land Registry and ONS data. BOOKMARK THIS PAGE (What is this?)      Source link

Forty per cent of SMEs said the UK would be able to “freely legislate” to meet the needs of British business if it left the EU, according to a survey by the Federation of Master Builders. The survey also found that 22.4 per cent of SMEs felt a Brexit could result in less red tape and bureaucracy. A further 14 per cent said that an exit could increase public sector capital investment through money saved from the UK’s financial contributions to the EU. Only 20 per cent of respondents said there would be no positive consequences of leaving the EU. However, the vast majority of members said they would vote with their personal views in mind, with only 17 per cent saying their decision would be based on their business interests. The research, which surveyed 214 FMB members, found that 20 per cent of SME builders believe staying in the EU would grow and stabilise the economy. More than half – 53 per cent – of all respondents said they did not feel well informed on the issues that could impact their business. FMB chief executive Brian Berry said the ongoing debate over Brexit “has done little to enlighten [small construction firms] on the issues that really matter”. “It just goes to show that although it’s important to explore the business case for leaving or remaining within the EU, for many people their decision will be based first and foremost on other drivers,” he said. “These could include the desire to be part of the wider European community or a compulsion to reclaim British national sovereignty.” He added that “few impartial facts” had been added by either side and it was “no wonder” that most builders would be opting to vote based on wider personal beliefs. The research follows Construction News’ April Barometer, which showed that 68 per cent of contractors wanted to remain in the EU, with a quarter backing the Leave camp and 7 per cent saying they were undecided. Research by the CBI showed that more than three-quarters of its construction members wanted to see the UK remain in the EU. Source link

Utilities should adopt the same attitude towards innovation and engineering seen in the space and aerospace sectors to address new challenges, according to an Oxford academic. Professor of engineering science at Oxford University, Tom Povey, told Utility Week that one way of doing this could be to bring in people from other industries such as aerospace. “It’s not do with specific ideas that might be transferred. I think it’s more to do with the mindset,” he said, adding that innovation is the aerospace sector’s “bread and butter” and engineers come up with “wacky ideas” that don’t come to fruition until “10 years down the line”. But, he said the same is not true for the utilities sector. “It’s not to do with the fact there isn’t scope for innovation,” he added. “I think it’s the fact that there isn’t a culture of innovation in those industries.” Povey founded engineering company Oxford Flow after coming up with a new type of pressure regulator for fluids whilst conducting research into turbines and jet engines. He said his company avoided hiring people with a background in utilities because of the mental “baggage” they brought with them: “We’re deliberately not recruiting people with experience in utilities even though that’s the sector we’re most interested in.” One problem, he said, was a lack of investment in technology development because “there are working products in most fields that satisfy most demands”. “I don’t think people have challenged themselves enough to come up with better or improved solutions,” he said. The utilities sector was once at the forefront of innovation “in the glory days of engineering” during the Victorian era, Povey said. Read Utility Week’s feature on what utilities can learn from space and aerospace here Source link

Building board manufacturer Fermacell is increasing its production capacity, in part to meet unprecedented demand from the UK. Above: New Fermacell factory in Spain, near Santander The UK sales operation of Europe’s largest supplier of gypsum fibre board marked a record increase in volume in 2015 over 2014. Growth has been attributed to a range of factors: some high-profile projects such as Great Ormond Street Hospital; an increasing use of Fermacell boards in rainscreen applications; the on-going take-up of Powerpanel H2O in external wall render applications; and the growing use of Fermacell as a low-cost tile backer solution. The manufacturer is now ramping up production at its factories in Germany and the Netherlands and has built a new factory in Spain.  UK general manager Gary Carter said: “We had a very good year in 2015, building even further on growth over the past few years.  Sales were a record for the UK by a significant amount and with an expanded sales team led by Matt Challenger we are setting ambitious growth targets for 2016 and beyond.”     This article was published on 17 Feb 2016 (last updated on 17 Feb 2016). Source link

17 June 2016 | Martin Read Research conducted by the British Council for Offices (BCO) and real estate services provider Savills suggests that office workers are far from settled on the value of many workplace innovations introduced over the past decade.   For the third edition of the BCO What Workers Want study, researchers set out to assess the needs of UK workers and how they might affect future office requirements. More than 1,100 UK office workers took part.   The most important factors perceived to be driving employees’ sense of satisfaction with their workplace can be bracketed under ‘getting the basics right: comfort (87 per cent), lighting (86 per cent) and temperature (85 per cent) were seen as the three most important factors affecting employees’ wellbeing at work.   Participants indicated that, although flexibility in where their work is conducted is welcome, working from home is becoming less appealing. When last asked in 2013, 45 per cent of respondents said they would like to work from home; that figure is just 28 per cent in the 2016 research.   And office requirements are shifting too. In 2013, 41 per cent of those polled said they would prefer their own dedicated desk space – a figure that has risen to 60 per cent in the latest research.   When asked what impact their office environment has on productivity levels, a quarter of survey participants said their workplace ‘decreased’ productivity levels. Half said that were the design of their office to match their own ‘ideal’, it would increase their productivity. These particular findings add to other research conducted in recent years that have office workers – when polled on their own perception of how their workplace impacts on productivity levels – giving negative responses.   Researchers say their report indicates “an increasing appetite for workers to be based in an office environment”.   Richard Kauntze, BCO chief executive, said: “This analysis shows that in trying to create the optimum working environment, organisations cannot look to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach. In listening to what a workforce wants and reflecting this in the workplace, the rewards can be considerable.”    Echoing other research firms’ findings over recent years, Steve Lang, director, Savills Research and author of the report, said: “Comfort, temperature and lighting are consistently the most important considerations for employees; the focus should be on getting the fundamentals right rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.”   Other report findings: Commuting: 40 per cent are unhappy with the length of their commute to the office. Office noise: 71 per cent say having quiet areas to work from is important to them; 30 per cent are satisfied that they have quiet areas available to work from. Access to collaboration space: 48 per cent see this as an imperative. Office culture: 42 per cent said that theirs ‘discourages flexible working’. The report is available to BCO members here. Source link

Today there are many machinery on nanotechnology. One of the most powerful equipment on the market is Fluidnatek LE-100 electrospinning machine from Bioinicia. The Fluidnatek LE-100 is ideal electrospinning machine for advanced research, extremely flexible for carrying out all kind of experimental arrangements and able to be equipped with non-conventional advanced features. One of the utilities that the Fluidnatek LE-100 is an electrospinning apparatus which can be adapted to any task. Crucially, it is compatible with an AC unit for climate control, which can be added at any time, making it an ideal machine for conducting precise research, development, or small-scale production activities. Now we are going to show the specifications and selected features that the Fluidnatek LE-100 will differentiate with other electrospinning equipment: Use of equipment for advanced development projects. Large experimental chamber for flexible configuration. Control of all processing parameters. Ultra-advanced electrospinning device with hygienic design. Actively regulated exhaust system with pressure sensing. Coaxial electrospinning configuration: It is also able to reach a triaxial configuration. Solvent resistant for effective cleaning and cleanroom compatibility. Touch control interface with data logging multi user-level access: Provides precise control, it is easy to use and has a feedback information system. Up to 20 emitters for increased productivity: High-throughput nanofiber production for higher production capacity in less time. Programmable X, Y and Z axes motion for patterned deposition. Exchangeable rotating collectors with scanning motion emitter. Optional second spinning stage for processing two materials at the same time. Compatible AC unit for temperature and humidity control. These are some of the features offered by the Fluidnatek LE-100. It is a machine easy to use, fast and with a high work performance. If you want to increase productivity in electrospinning processes, this machine is perfect.