ENERGY
A RAY OF SUNSHINE THE LATEST GENERATION OF SOLAR POWER CAN USE THE SUN’S ENERGY TO
GENERATE POWER EVEN ON A CLOUDY DAY. IT’S GREAT NEWS FOR THE LEISURE INDUSTRY, EXPLAINS THE ENERGY DESK’S LAURA-CLARE DAVIES
A
s the hottest topic in renew- able energy solutions to emerge in the past 12 months, interest in the Renewable
Heat Incentive (RHI) is on the rise and so it should be. RHI is a financial incentive scheme that guarantees cashback pay- ments for 20 years on the installation of renewable heat technologies. The scheme is designed to ensure that
your benefits are two-fold; firstly you save money by producing your own en- ergy, reducing your need for gas or oil; secondly, you get paid a fixed rate for the heat you generate. So the big question now is what pieces
of kit are out there that tick all the boxes for the RHI? The trick is in realising that different equipment will vary in terms of its compatibility with different sites, depending on where the majority of a building’s energy use sits. For example, leisure buildings rely a lot
on air conditioning and water heating systems. Thankfully most technologies in the RHI scheme are used for heating and cooling, so from the outset, the sport and active leisure industries have a com- petitive advantage.
EVOLUTIONS IN RENEWABLE HEAT TECHNOLOGY The renewable energy technology mar- ket is constantly evolving. Solar panels or photovoltaics (PV),
for example, have long been an estab- lished means of generating renewable energy via the sun’s direct heat source, and they have been adopted by domestic and commercial users up and down the country for the past decade. However, although these traditional solar power systems have proved viable in terms of producing electricity, they do rely on sunlight, which is something of an elusive commodity in some places. This leads us on to thermodynamic
solar panels (TSPs), the next generation in solar power. Thermodynamic solar panels work in
exactly the same way as conventional so- lar panels, insofar as they utilise the sun’s power and convert it to thermal energy to heat water, but with one very big dif- ference. The sun doesn’t need to be out for the panels to operate. Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Trust us, it’s not. The key word here is ‘dynamic’. The panels are activated by the surrounding
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ambient temperature, whether the sun is out or not. So rather than restricting energy pro-
duction to hours of the day with direct sunlight, TSPs generate heat from the atmosphere during the day and con- tinue through the night, heating water to 55 degrees celsius. Generating energy 24 hours a day, 365 days a year is pretty impressive and these thermodynamic systems operate down to a minimum ambient temperature of -15 degrees celsius, which is of particular benefit if you’re plagued by disappointing sum- mers. What’s more, unlike conventional solar panels, TSPs don’t necessarily need to be placed on your roof. These systems can be installed anywhere on a building, meaning they can work with the overall aesthetics of a building.
MAKING THERMODYNAMIC SOLAR POWER WORK Thermodynamic solar power is very new to many markets and its innovative capa- bilities and overall efficiency will make this technology a big seller in the renew- able heat sector. Installing this system will not only reduce your requirement for
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