SunGift Solar are pleased to hear that "Agricultural businesses have been invited to apply for a new £50m green fund created by RBS and Natwest to help farmers generate energy from renewable sources, such as wind turbines and solar panels."

If you have had a Sunny Beam Personal Display, for your Solar PV system, since before 1st April of this year you probably need to up-date the tariff.
Please follow these instructions
- Press knob on side of Sunny Beam till it comes up with the menu
- Turn knob to scroll down to Settings (press knob to select)
- Scroll down to Display Options (press knob to select)
- Scroll down to Balance Coefficients (press knob to select)
- Scroll down to Revenue/kWh (press knob to select)
- Press knob until the cursor is on the number that needs changing (e.g. 1 for 0.4130p/kWh)

Here at SunGift Solar we are committed to offering our customers the best products available. A key part of this is thoroughly researching and testing these products to ensure that they stand up to manufacturer’s claims. We always try to visit manufacturing plants, company head quarters and meet with the key people involved to see for ourselves what they are all about.

As part of this last commitment last week I went to Valencia to visit Siliken whose PV modules won 2010 Photon Test, producing more kWh per kWp than any of the other 47 manufacturers tested.

Gabriel Wondrausch, MD of SunGift Solar, talks to Geoff Pagotto about how Solar PV can benefit farmers, and the huge opportunities presented by the Feed In Tariffs.

Recent independent tests have shown the REC solar modules to be leading PV modules in power and efficiency. The Photon Modules Field test showed that REC solar modules generated more electricity than 30 other leading modules, producing 6 percent more power on average. REC was ranked the best in test for five out of twelve months.

We decided to see for ourselves how the different panels out there perform and so have installed a test array on our offices in Exeter. We are trailing six different types of panel, and have installed as close of 1kw of each as possible to offer a good comparison.

The modules we have installed are as follows:

* 6 x Sharp NU185 Monocrystalline modules (1.11kwp)
* 4 x Sanyo HIT 240watt high performance modules (0.96kwp)
* 4 x Conergy Powerplus 225watt modules (0.9kwp)
* 4 x REC 235 modules (0.94kwp)
* 4 x Day4 230watt modules (0.92kwp)

Good news! From 1st April 2011 the Feed-In Tariff levels are increasing, as they are adjusted (up or down) in line with the Retail Price Index (RPI) on an annual basis.
All tariffs, including both the export tariffs & the generation tariff, have been increased by 4.8% in line with the RPI change over the period 1st January 2010 to 31st December 2010.

Stanford University issued the following news release:

Cornwall solar farm plans approved Cornwall Council has approved plans for a giant solar farm near Lostwithiel, which is capable of producing up to 5MW of power per year.

Energy from the farm , which is being developed by Cornwall Power and Lanhydrock Estate Company, will be used to drive the nearby South West Water (SWW) treatment plant.

Planning permission for the £12 million project was granted by Cornwall Council this week and construction is expected to begin in the spring. The plant should be online by autumn, subject to an agreement with SWW.

A disused tin mine is set to host the UK's first solar park after winning approval from Cornwall Council.

With about 5,000 2-metre high panels, the PV power plant is intended to generate 1.34 million kWh each year. 35 Degrees, the plant's developer, intends to work with Solon SE on the project.

The plant will occupy 7.3 acres of Wheal Jane, a tin mine first worked in the mid 18th century and abandoned in 1992. Stephen McCabe, 35 Degrees’ managing director, described the project as “the first building block in bringing a new growth industry to Cornwall and the UK”.