A car port which uses solar panels to recharge electric vehicles has been unveiled by glass specialists, Romag Holdings.
Romag Holdings plc has unveiled the ‘PowerPark’ – a solar car parking canopy made of PowerGlaz PV panels that will be targeted for car parks at airports, stations, supermarkets, shopping centres, offices and public buildings including sports and leisure facilities. Romag even expect that the canopy will generate electricity which can be sold into the national grid as well as charging electric vehicles.
This initiative has been spurred by Government encouragement to demonstrate that the infrastructure is being put in place to support the manufacture of electric cars and will furthermore be beneficial to commercial organisations when the feed in tariff is introduced in 2010.
Romag has already secured a contract with OneNE, the regional development agency, to build two prototype ‘PowerPark’ canopies: one at its own facility in County Durham and the other at Tegrel Engineering in Blaydon on Tyne, the manufacturers of the steel structure utilised in the PowerPark product. Once testing is approved, PowerPark can be rolled out initially as part of the pilot programme in the North East and then throughout the UK.
Romag also announces today that it is establishing the UK’s first Solar PV Training and Business Centre. With financial support from OneNE, Romag will develop a facility at its headquarters featuring both standard photovoltaic and building integrated photovoltaic products. The Training and Business Centre will be available for hire to organisations that wish to train people across the manufacturing industry from roofers to electricians, installers, architects, developers and planners.
Commenting on the initiatives, Lyn Miles, Romag CEO said: “We are extremely excited about these two projects and are positive about the benefits they will present for the future of UK manufacturing and climate change, particularly in the North East. Both the PowerPark and the training centre are being developed to ensure that the infrastructure and expertise is in place to allow UK companies to readily respond to the potential increase in demand for solar powered microgeneration within the UK market which
will be accelerated by the feed-in tariff.”
