Responses to RHI Consultation 379
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Question: Q06 1. The Scottish Government has approved an extension to the Certifier of Construction Scheme to cover the installation of microgeneration and renewable energy technologies. SummitSkills has worked closely with this scheme to develop competence requirements that are based on National Occupational Standards and are closely aligned to the requirements for MCS. 2. However, SummitSkills understands that the Certifier of Construction Scheme is a non-EN 45011 scheme and that this may be a barrier to the scheme being recognised as equivalent to MCS. However, this should not be viewed in this way, as the Certifier of Construction scheme is subject to rigourous quality audits by the Scottish Government’s own Building Standards Division. As such, SummitSkills considers that any lack of recognition of the Certifier of Construction Scheme for microgeneration and renewable energy technologies for RHI purposes may significantly hinder the success and impact of the RHI in Scotland. 3. SummitSkills believes that the EU directive should be the benchmark to which any equivalent scheme is measured. Any alternative scheme that complies with EU directive should be considered as suitable, as it should prove that products, training and processes are designed to the same standard. 4. SummitSkills understands that the European Heat Pump Association has a scheme to test and certify heat pump products, details are available at http://www.ehpa.org/ehpa-quality-label/ 379 Corus Colors Private Company Question: a) Summary Solar; 22 June 2010 Page 653 of 1348 Question: b) GeneralResponse 1. Strategic case for Transpired Solar Collector technology The Transpired Solar Collector technology was first introduced into the UK 5 years ago under license from Conserval Engineering Inc. of Canada by CA Group, a major Corus customer. Working closely with CA, Corus has developed the thermal absorption properties of its Colorcoat Prisma® pre- finished steel product to provide an excellent Transpired Solar Collector on a wide range of colours, extending the performance and aesthetics of the system. Through the Colorcoat® brand Corus is European market leader in the provision of pre-finished steel building envelopes. The company is actively developing ways for the building envelope to be used more intelligently to provide an energy source and believe Transpired Solar Collector technology has a strategic role to play in this. To provide scale and market leadership, Corus is committed to launching and branding its own Transpired Solar Collector system, and together with CA Group, building market opportunities for the technology both in the UK and beyond. These will leverage Corus established supply routes across Europe and see the company developing new ones to access additional applications in residential. With manufacturing in the UK this will make a significant contribution to the UK economy and create new employment opportunities at Corus manufacturing site at Shotton. Whilst the existing technology is already very well established and proven in use, Corus believes there are opportunities to extend its application and capabilities further. To help realise these opportunities, Corus recently announced investment in a £6million Sustainable Building Envelope Centre based at Shotton in partnership with the Low Carbon Research Institute and Welsh Assembly Government. This centre will accelerate the development of low and zero carbon solutions for the built environment using steel in combination with other materials and will specifically focus on solar air and photovoltaic technologies. The Government has set a challenging target to source 15% of the UK’s energy requirements from renewable sources by 2020 with a potential 12% required for heating. If included in the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme and with Corus commitment to provide scale and market leadership, Transpired Solar Collector technology could make a significant contribution to achieving the 12% target. We would therefore ask that this established technology be approved for inclusion in the Renewable Heat Incentive and be given the same opportunity as other renewable heat sources. To be excluded would disadvantage the technology and its future development and actively discourage the market from using it. 2. Transpired Solar Collector Technology The Transpired Solar Collector is a globally proven solar air heating technology, specifically developed for solar space heating. Transpired Collectors utilise solar energy to preheat fresh, outdoor (ventilation) air as it is drawn into a building and are ideally suited to applications in which large volumes of air need to be heated, or where high ventilation rates are required. By preheating ventilation air with solar energy, Transpired Solar Collectors can be used to remove a substantial load from a buildings heating system providing significant savings in energy and associated CO2 emissions. Installed as an additional skin to a buildings southerly facing elevation, the solar collector consists of an unglazed, dark-coloured metal absorber that is fully perforated with small holes allowing outside air to be drawn through it before being delivered into the building. When exposed to the sun, the absorber acts as a highly effective solar radiation-to-air heat exchanger. As the suns energy strikes the surface of the collector and is absorbed, solar heat conducts to the fine boundary layer of air that lines the outer surface of the panel. This heated boundary layer is then drawn through the perforations in the absorber into a specifically engineered air cavity that is created between the Transpired Solar Collector and the buildings original elevation behind. From the air cavity, the fresh solar heated air can be delivered directly into the building as heated ventilation air or ducted directly into the buildings main heating plant where it is utilised as a pre-heater to the main heating system. The perforations within the collector provide close contact between the solar absorber and the air to be heated, which results in minimal thermal losses. This is due to the continual flow of fresh air towards the absorber almost eliminating the normal heat losses from the ambient wind (convective heat loss). The continual flow of outdoor air through the absorber also ensures that the temperature of the collector remains within only a few degrees of ambient air temperatures, ensuring that energy losses by radiation from the collector to the surroundings are also minimal. During bright, clear days (irrelevant of outside temperature) the Transpired Solar Collector can be used to effectively heat fresh, outside air by as much as 30°C above its ambient temperature, with each square meter of collector providing the equivalent output of a 0.5kW heater. This heated air can then be used to provide all, or a portion of the buildings heating load during daylight hours. Even during dull, overcast, cloudy days when the system may not be able to achieve the required indoor temperature the collector can still provide useful energy, helping reduce utility costs. The Transpired Solar Collector technology is an active solar air heating sytem that relies on a dedicated fan unit, or the fan unit within the buildings heating system to operate. This must not be confused with passive solar systems using windows, thermal mass or collectors that do not have fans or pumps, which are normally ineligible for support. In addition to helping reduce a buildings heating demand by utilising clean, free, solar energy, the Transpired Solar Collector can also help to save energy and CO2 emissions in other ways. Installed as an additional skin to a buildings southerly facing elevation, the collector can effectively recapture any wasted heat that may be lost through the building’s southerly facade, before re introducing the heat back in to the building via the heating / ventilation system. This can be of particular benefit when utilised on older, less thermally efficient buildings. During its development, the performance of the Transpired Solar Collector was rigorously tested at the National Solar Test Facility (NSTF), owned by Natural Resources Canada Alternative Energy Division (CANMET) and operated by Bodycote-ORTECH laboratory, Canada. The NSTF is one of North Americas leading centres for testing and energy rating technologies under controlled sunlight, temperature and wind conditions. Testing found that the unglazed Transpired Solar Collector was significantly more efficient, less expensive and better suited to ventilation preheating than previous solar air collectors which generally relied on glazing to hold in absorbed heat. As most glazings tend to reflect approximately 15% of incident solar radiation back to atmosphere, eliminating them makes a major efficiency contribution and substantially reduces material costs. The result is that is a Transpired Solar Collector is capable of capturing up to 80% of the available solar energy falling on its surface. The performance of the Transpired Solar Collector has also been independently tested, monitored and verified by both BSRIA and Battle McCarthy consulting engineers in the UK and is currently helping the likes of Sainsbury’s, Jaguar Land Rover & Royal Mail cut their energy consumption and carbon emissions. Further to this, the inclusion of the Transpired Solar Collector technology into version 4 of the BRE’s Simplified Building Energy Model (SBEM), scheduled for release in April 2010, will allow architects, consulting engineers and building owners