Went yesterday and was amazed at how big it was and how many people were there.
Reminded me of when I used to go to those big DIY computer fairs in the early 90's to buy new motherboards and CPUs and adapter cards and so on. A real "new industry" buzz.
After you've seen a million different but seemingly identical PV modules on various makers and distributors stands, you have to be left wondering... How would a installer choose a supplier to go with? Everybody was selling the same thing and that leads you to the inevitable question of price being the only differentiator and almost nobody would quote a price for anything. Go figure...
I did get a steer from one stand that the black Chinese modules that they sold were known to be performing better than the more well known brands and were only £1.39/Watt. Not sure about this aesthetic trend for blacked out modules. That only makes them hotter in the sun and that makes them less efficient...
Lots of thin film stuff coming on to the market now and finally in W/m
2 that are getting closer to that of crystalline modules. New mounting systems too for them that do not require frames (saving lots of aluminium).
Disappointingly, not much going on on the Navitron stand (not just my observation, but that of the staffer I spoke to, who said it had been "a slow day"). Actually, the most interesting bit was at the back of the stand with the guy who designed the combined electric / solar coil retro-fit immersion heater gizmo. An impressive bit of brass and stainless steel that looked like it belonged in Dana Scully's lab from the X-Files... Kewl!
Suprisingly, an almost total lack of anything to do with off-grid. I eventually found a couple of stands that had some off grid kit (or on/off grid power backup kit). There was a strong contingent of Chinese PV module and inverter makers but I'd expected to see some of the storage guys promoting large format Lithium cells or at least the usual crowd of lead acid suppliers... Nada... Zip. Well, one stand had a very dusty cutaway model of a Rolls battery hidden almost out of view but no promotion at all of how to store all this loverly but intermittent renewable energy. Missing a trick... big time.
Also next to nothing on low energy lighting. Maybe three stands. One was promoting something like studio spot lights for expensive shop display use. Interesting only because it showed that LED lights can make a
seriously bright light to rival halogen. One was selling "designer" CFLs that looked like they'd been designed by taking cues from "Mr Messy" from the Mr Men. One was selling some MR11 & GU10 LED spots and more "normal" designer CFLs. Pretty but not an innovation.
One thing that did catch my eye was an industrial control and instrumentation system that uses Zigbee wireless control. They had a wireless solar irradiance and temperature sensor to measure available power for PV modules (like my bodged one that I use to try and guess whether to turn on the immersion heater dump load or not). The guy on the stand said that they don't normally sell to the public, but that if I mailed him, he'd give me a one-off price for the sensor and the wireless base station that plugs into USB or ethernet and uses MODBUS communication. This is the same as the Morningstar controllers I have that also use MODBUS. Might be cheaper to just re-build my wired sensor using something a bit more robust than the "water tight" tupperware box from Tescos though
"Man of the Show" award goes to the really friendly and chatty Scotsman who was the designer of a big CHP gas engine generator. He could easily have auditioned for Scotty on Star Trek. He cheerfully explained about how it recovers all the engine block heat and exhaust heat for use in the home, while making 7kW of electricity at the same time. I told him I'd seen something like it in Frotter's Shed of Doom and that it ran on lard. He was fascinated (in that way that Spock usually is) and countered that it had taken him a long time to get the thing to work reliably and automatically. I nodded and conceded that Frotter's efforts required an element of baby sitting, welding, large hammering, and occasional fire fighting to keep it going
Disappointing lack of anything to actually buy at the show. Some light bulbs... and err... can't remember anything else actually for sale. I did find a weird stand that was selling just solar rucsacks. Two for £20! That's my train fare earned back on eBay
On inspection of the almost unreadable Chinese Engish instructions, the solar module "sewn" (well bolted actually) into the back of the bag was a 1.5W 6V poly affair that charges a 2600mAh LiPo 3.7V cell and then some electronics regulate this to 5.3V for USB charging of various phones, iPod, game, etc. via a set of adaptors. Even comes with a little wall plug to charge the battery away from the sun. Quite a few other punters stopped me on my subsquent "hike" around the venue to say "Wow, that's cool... Where'd you get that?".
If I'd opened up a stand selling little 10-80W solar modules (that can just about be carried home on the Tube), I reckon I'd have made a killing. Loads of business users at the rucsack stand were asking if they sold a bigger one to charge laptops...
Very curious round cell module was being touted. Can't see how it would be any better than the square / rectangular type as it didn't fill any more of the area (that might increase module efficiency). In fact, it makes less sense to use round cells to fill a rectangular frame, as they had to use odd sized sawn-off bits of cells to fill the gaps... Caught people's attention because it was just "different", but technically probably a
