Specialist Glass Processors and

Solar PV Manufacturers

Market Case Study

Ray Noble – PV Consultant
Solar Flair 19th November 2009
 Services & Products Prior to PV
Services
• Glass toughening,
laminating & bending
• Glass cutting, drilling,
grinding & polishing
• Solar control interlayer,
screen printing & tinting
• Heat soak testing, double
glazed units & silicon
bonding
• Design advice
• Over 50 years experience
Products
• Architectural Glass
balustrades, doors, floors,
stairs, screens, louvres,
facades & atria
• Security Glass
bullet / blast resistant glass
for buildings and specialist
vehicles
• Specialist Transport Glass
VIP cars, trains, armoured
military vehicles
 First PV Manufacture
• First looked at PV in 1999
• Made PV Louvres for BP
Office HQ in London
• All hand made
• In a highly automated
glass plant, hand made PV
would not fit in easily
• Decided on a watching
brief until a sizeable
market developed
• Invested in a 6MWp
automated plant in 2004
 PV Production
• Took over an adjacent
factory for PV Manufacture
with space for expansion
• Glass is cut to size,
toughened, etc in existing
facility
• Processed Glass then
transferred to new PV Plant
where all PV products made
• Double Glazing line moved
alongside PV
• 3 more production lines now
added –capacity 38MWp
 Lessons learned
• Minimise changes to existing
operations – need business
as usual
• Only integrate parts that fit
• Skills of PV workforce
different
• Product design needed both
Glass and PV expertise
together
• Created 120 new jobs
• Benefits – Turnover
increased from £9m to £33M
 Staff Morale
• Everyone likes PV
and it appears to give
everyone a buzz!
 But why PV?
• PV Industry makes standard
products
• PV Industry never talks to
Building Industry
• Some products not suitable
• Opportunity - Building Industry
require a range of PV products
suitable for Buildings
• Romag have supplied glass
products to Building Industry
for over 30 years and so know
how they do business and what
they require
 PV market as seen by PV Industry
• Standard PV Modules
added on Buildings or put
in Fields
Building Industry requirements of PV
• PV products that fit
buildings and have a
multi function as well as
satisfying building
regulations
 So what do Romag make?
• Anything in glass and PV
• Any size, shape or
specification
We even make standard modules!
• But should a Client wish we
will tailor the standard
product to his requirements
 Innovative Company
• To keep ahead of the opposition
we need to use Innovation and
Partners
 Only Crystalline PV (Too Date)
• Crystalline Cells only
• We have a watching brief
on new PV technology
• Some new products /
processes have severe
limitations and are not
suitable for the market
• Maximum electricity
output is a key
requirement
• When providing 25 year
warranties you must only
pick winners!
 PowerPark
• Electric Vehicles are
coming so we invented
“PowerPark”
 Funding Schemes
• Government LCBP 1 & 2
grants end in March 2010
• However, Feed in Tariffs,
which are better, start in
April 2010
• A Generation Tariff of
around 40p/kWh
• Plus an Export Tariff of
5p/kWh
• 25 year guaranteed FIT
payments
• PV for Free!
 Commercial Advantage
• With the FIT comes a new
form of Certification:
• Products must be MCS listed
• Romag were one of the first to
be listed
• MCS listed Installers
• Romag have ensured that all
MCS listed Installers aware of
the full range of Romag
products and have supply
agreements in place
• Romag / NaREC are running
training courses for Building
Industry Players
 Leading by example
• News: Romag have just
received Planning
Permission to clad all
their buildings with PV -
1.2MWp
• Will be the largest PV
installation in the UK
• 960,000kWh / year
• 670 tonnes of CO2 /
year saved
• Paid for by the FIT
 The Futures Bright

Thank You
www.romag.co.uk
raynoble1@btinternet.com