No suitable roof space available? No problem.

Ground-mounted solar PV isn’t only for the vast solar farms you see in the fields, you can also very easily have a ground-mounted solar PV system at your home.

All you need is a suitable patch of land with minimal shading, not too far from your house. An armoured cable can be trenched or clipped back to your electrical supply and voila, no need for scaffolding or installers climbing about on your roof.

SunGift preferred ground-mounted system: The Cornish Rocker

Cornish Rocker ground mounted solar panels

A Cornish Rocker ground mounted solar PV system

 

Made in Cornwall by Chris Searle of Solar Frames South West, the Cornish Rocker comes with a unique feature that sets it apart from other ground-mounted systems: the Rocker’s pitch can be manually adjusted throughout the year.

One of the downsides of rooftop or static ground-mounted solar PV is that whilst the sun moves across, up and down in the sky, the panels stay put. However, solar panels generate their peak energy when they are perpendicular to the incoming sunlight. This means that, depending on the pitch of the array, there will only be a few hours of a few days throughout the year where the panels get close to generating their peak electricity. It also means that in winter, when you really need as much solar generation as you can get, your panels might be underperforming.

The Cornish Rocker tackles this issue head on.

With the ability to manually adjust the tilt of your panels as much as you want throughout the year, you can ensure that your array is always pitched for maximum energy generation. The Rocker’s pitch can be anything between 15 and 55 degrees – perfectly suited to the UK seasons. Chris recommends adjusting the pitch 6-8 times throughout the year, but you can decide for yourself based on your specific needs. Depending on your system, you may be able to increase the winter yield by up to 40%.