Solar Cowboys.
This is a copy of an email which arrived in my inbox today. We are not a perfect solar company, but I hope we can do better than this. Regards from Barry Johnston.
(The sender’s name and the location of the solar panel company has been deleted at their request.)
Barry, I just love reading your articles on your web site and elsewhere.
You always make extremely valid points and comments, I particularly liked the Which? magazine saga. However, sometimes your writing does read like a ‘rant’ but I’m sure that’s because you’re very passionate about your views, which I fully support. My only ‘brush’ with the solar water heating industry was some years ago with a nearby company (fortunately I can’t remember their name).
Their salesman said that the water was heated to 200c by the sun. I asked him what pressure the system maintained the water at to heat it to 200c, he was not able to answer; I should have been suspicious at that point (ie physics, let alone practicalities make it highly unlikely the water would get to 200c unless at enormous pressure). To my own surprise we went ahead and ordered a system but added additional conditions to the contract, signed by both us and the salesman.
To cut a long story short they were unable to meet our additional conditions and they eventually returned our deposit, after some time. We decided to investigate the company and found that several of the directors had several County Court judgments against them; would I really want to buy anything from such a company?? Certainly not! Would I believe their salesmen? Certainly not!
So Barry, keep up the good work. I’m sure one day the solar heating industry will get past it’s ‘double glazing’ salesman period but not for a long time. Only really committed, honest people like you will cause it to change; vested interests in business and government are a powerful force.
Barry replies:
Many thanks indeed for your encouraging email. Sorry about your unfortunate solar experience – and for my rants! I really appreciate you taking the time to write.
No solar company is perfect (we have occasional failings) but I am hoping that we can be in the top quartile, at the very least. I am also hopeful that the solar industry and the wider renewable industries will become more customer focussed, more environment-focussed, and just more open, rather sooner than you think. Why am I optimistic about this?
One fairly immediate issue depends on whether the OFT will address renewables as a mere footnote or head on in their forthcoming report on “off-grid energy” report, bundled into to scope of which which is renewable energy. OFT say: We would also encourage any interested parties who wish to contribute information to contact us by 27 May 2011 by email at offgrid@oft.gsi.gov.uk…
Another is that we have made a number of notifications to the ASA (I contacted ASA only after we got an unsatisfactory response from UK’s renewable industry consumer champions and other solar industry top players leaders) about several over-enthusiastic performance claims such as “free hot water” coming from solar industry leaders, including a national supermarket chain. ASA has already taken more that double their usual time to investigate, without yet coming to a decision. This delay may or may not be good news, but if these claims can be stopped then the solar consumer will start to trust us more.
UK risks ending up with whimsical and unsubstantiated subsidy schemes – for microgeneration and renewables – both RHI and FIT – because DECC are not basing them on the (easily gained summary details of) energy and carbon breakevens of the various technologies involved.
Regards, Barry.
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