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<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cWe have been working on this product behind the scenes with Clifford Jones Timber for months. We have pooled our knowledge of the Solar Industry and worked with them as timber specialists to develop this great range of products.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the technical and manufacturing ability to even produce a custom system to suit if required.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe concept was to keep it simple and to mimic the way it is installed currently on large scale. We are really excited to be on this journey and already have our sights set on Europe, the Middle East, India, the USA and China for the product.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese things are costed at price per kilowatt hour of electricity but if you are even one pence an hour cheaper then that makes a massive difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn average size solar farm has 60,000 solar panels and can generate 15 Megawatts of power, a thousand watts is a kilowatt and a million kilowatts make a megawatt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat means that one penny adds up to \u00a3150,000 a year cheaper and those sorts of figures make people sit up and take notice.\u201d<\/p>\n
The frame, mounted on wooden posts, comes with a 25-year guarantee on frame and post and Clifford Jones Timber Sales Chairman Alan Jones said: \u201cThe potential here is enormous because a medium-sized solar park of 60,000 solar panels which would need over 80,000 posts and frames could be worth \u00a31.5 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are strong, durable, easy to install and made from FSC \u2013 Forest Stewardship Council \u2013 timber that is fully traceable and from sustainable forests, as is all the timber we use.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clifford Jones Timber employ over 80 people at their premises at Ruthin and at Gretna, in Scotland, and process over 100,000 tons of timber a year.<\/p>\n
The range of products they supply includes fence posts, gates, laminated timber for the construction and leisure industries, bedding for horses and even cat litter, and a range of wood fuels, from dried logs and wood briquettes to wood pellets for biomass boilers.<\/p>\n
Alan Jones added: \u201cEverything that comes onto the site here is used. Nothing goes to waste thanks to three biomass boilers installed onsite.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s that commitment to sustainability that has encouraged us to develop the wooden frames for solar panels.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese could be used either on small domestic installations or on large scale solar parks and we believe we are leading the way in this field, not just nationally but Europe-wide.<\/p>\n
\u201cSolar power is clean energy and so now are the frames which can hold the solar panels and they are competitively priced, lighter and so easier to transport and, of course, they have a much smaller carbon footprint.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are uniquely well placed to manufacture these frame systems because we make the fence posts and can make the frames as well and in its laminated form it is four times stronger than ordinary wood.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a rigid timber form they support solar panels to make clean energy and then they can be brought back to us and we recycle them as biomass pellets to be burnt to create electricity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe design we have developed is also easily adjustable because solar panels have to be adjusted to the angle of the sun, depending where in the world you are \u2013 on the equator the sun is directly overhead but in the UK the panels need to be approximately at a 35 degree angle.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat flexibility means that our frames could be used anywhere in the world and that could open up massive new markets for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more on Clifford Jones Timber go to http:\/\/www.cjtimber.com\/<\/a> or to Twitter @Timber_Sol<\/p>\n