Solar PV Installers in St Ives

Solar PV Installers in St Ives St Ives, Cambridgeshire

"A Great Job Well Done! Twelve solar panels were supplied and fitted with associated interfacing items. The pre/post-installation customer service was excellent and work was carried out cheerfully, professionally and on time ... and it all works faultlessly. This is a company that cares about its reputation and goes the extra mile to ensure customer education and feedback. It is also provides a very slick, professional, skillful service when it comes to the actual installation."
—David M. from St Ives, generating solar energy at his home since September of 2015.

Cambridge Solar Ltd is rated 4.9 stars with 49 reviews on Which? Trusted Trader.
We're also rated 4.9 stars with 27 ratings on Google Reviews.
Feel free to browse more of our customer testimonials.

We're Local Experts

Here at Cambridge Solar Ltd, we are experts at designing and installing high quality solar panel systems for domestic and commercial customers.  Our technical staff have designed solar panel systems that have been installed all over the world, and since 2009 our installation staff have installed hundreds of solar panel systems across East Anglia.  Given this experience, we can say with confidence that St Ives and the surrounding area is a great geographic location for generating energy from the sun.

Solar energy productivity in St Ives

We often receive inquires as to whether enough sunlight reaches our northerly region of the world for solar panels to be productive. Fortunately, the answer is a resounding yes. Our hundreds of clients can attest that East Anglia is a great location for producing energy from the sun. Our northern latitude in East Anglia means that we experience a wider variance in daylight length here than at locations closer to the equator. So, during the long summer days Cambridge (53 degrees north of the equator, and essentially the same solar conditions as St Ives) actually receives more sunlight than Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (just 3 degrees north of the equator), as shown in this plot below:

This plot shows that Cambridgeshire, and the UK in general, is actually a better place for generating energy from the sun that many people expect. Solar panels here outperform locations close to the equator during the summer, and their yearly total electricity production is just 28% less than in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In fact, a typical south-facing, 4 kWp residential solar PV system produces about as much electricity in a year as the average UK household consumes [1]. If you'd like a precise estimate for how much energy you can generate at your residence, feel free to call us today to schedule a site survey.

Consistent Results

Cambridge Solar Ltd is monitoring a large number solar panel systems, both domestic and commercial, across the UK. This gives us great insight into energy production in different geographic areas. We combine this detailed electricity generation data with the available scientific data to provide a complete profile of the available energy from the sun at specific locations.

The amount of energy from the sun that strikes the earth is called solar irradiance, measured in power per unit of area. St Ives receives enough solar irradiance that a typical solar photovoltaic system will produce about 1 MWh of energy per year, per 1 kWp of solar panels installed [2]. That means you'll have plenty of available solar energy to convert into electricity for your home, business, school, or other site. While your site may need to remain connected to the grid, many of our grid-connected clients are surprised by how much of their yearly energy consumption is completely offset by their solar system.

Join a Growing Movement

A growing number of families, schools, businesses, and others have chosen to generate their electricity from the sun [3, 4]. As solar energy systems have become cheaper and more efficient, solar farms that feed into the grid have begun springing up everywhere, including major projects in Essex [5] and Northamptonshire [6]. Cambridge Solar Ltd offers a range of the latest, most effective solar technologies to address any renewable energy goal. Contact us today to schedule a site survey and begin your journey.

Productivity of a Typical System

The amount of daily sunlight that reaches a particular place on the surface of the earth depends on the latitude of the place, and the time of year. Solar panel performance also depends on two installation factors: the angle at which the panels are installed with respect to the horizon---most roofs in the UK have a gradient of 35 degrees---and the orientation of the roof toward the south---facing due-south is ideal. Considering these factors, an typical 4 kWp residential solar PV system will generate electricity at these monthly rates:

You can see that this average-sized solar system will generate about 3.9 MWh of electricity per year, which is nearly as much as the average UK household consumes [7]. Electricity may be generated from your solar panels at times when you're not consuming it, but you'll still be generating income from the Feed-In Tariffs scheme [8, 9]. To power your home entirely by the sun, you can upgrade your system to store electricity in a battery. Ring up one of our experts to discuss your renewable energy goals, and how we can help you meet them.

Solar Irradiance

We are always happy to see how surprised our clients are to learn that they can productively generate electricity from the sun, even though vacationers don't travel here to get a tan. In fact, our cumulative annual solar irradiance at this latitude is significant. As shown in the map below, the East Anglia area receives significantly more sun energy than the west and north of the UK, which are more often obscured by cloud cover.

When analyzing a new site, Cambridge Solar Ltd measures latitude, roof angle, shading, and other factors to provide a customized solar trajectory plot so our clients will have the best available estimate for how much solar energy they can produce at their location. Contact us today to schedule a site survey.

A Sound Investment

As an MCS-approved solar panel installer, Cambridge Solar Ltd follows the industry standard, best practices for determining how quickly your solar system will pay for itself in energy savings[10]. Our project proposals show the amount of money you can expect to generate from the Feed-In Tariff scheme [11, 12], plus the amount of money saved by not purchasing electricity from the grid. In our experience with hundreds of systems since 2009, we've found that many high-quality installations even exceed their expected financial returns, paying for themselves in less than half of their warrantied lifetime. See what options best suit your site by scheduling a site survey with us today.