Inside2Outside is a leading supplier in the market for tensile fabric structures. The structures are supplied under their own name, and the Pocca brand to Schools and Colleges and to domestic, industrial and agricultural customers.
Managing Director Rob Carpenter saw an opportunity to bring interest to an established market by enhancing the products with the addition of Solar Photovoltaic power generation. Rob needed to find out how his customers would react to the product, how the product could be delivered and what the financial implications were for the end customer. We needed to find out from the technologies that were available, which would ofer the greatest benefit. We also needed to develop a beter understanding of the financial and legislative framework of the Solar PV market.
The customers we contacted in an initial market survey of schools were very enthusiastic. They liked the idea of adding Solar PV to structures as this would not only help them to reduce initial capital costs, it would also provide them with material to support the curiculum for renewable energy. We discovered however that the system for capital grants was coming to an end to be replaced by Feed in Tarifs (FITs) which would give a subsidy for electricity generated. To make the product atractive it would be necessary to reduce this capital cost.
Rob had initialy discussed the concept with me as we had known each other for some time and I had the engineering background and had been working for another client in the energy sector. I also put forward the idea of geting grant support for the market feasibility work. We were successful in geting a grant for initial feasibility which funded both the Schools Survey and the work undertaken by Opus21 to build detailed knowledge of existing products and technologies in the Solar PV industries. We also developed a good understanding of the emerging requirements for qualification for FITs including requirements for MCS Accreditation. It became obvious to us during the work that I2O need a more comprehensive
8 January 2012