14 DAY TRIAL // The Clifford Jones Timber Group, a timber merchant based in Ruthin in the United Kingdom, has recently teamed up with Carbon Zero Renewables, an expert in green energy.
As surprising as this may sound, it would appear that the goal of this partnership is to make commercially available solar panels even more environmentally than they currently are.
According to the folks at the Clifford Jones Timber Group and Carbon Zero Renewables, this can easily be achieved by fitting them onto frames made of timber instead of galvanized steel.
Clifford Jones Timber argues that, when compared to run-off-the-mill galvanized steel frames, timber ones are lighter, Click Green reports.
Besides, they have been shown to last just as much as the former, and to have a much smaller carbon footprint, the same source details.
One other advantage that they pose is the fact that, once they are no longer of any use, they can more easily be disposed of.
In fact, the timber merchant itself has offered to take them back after 25 years and have them turned into biomass fuel.
In terms of durability, Clifford Jones Timber maintains that its timber solar panel frames last just as much as the ones made of galvanized steel that are presently used on a large scale by the green energy industry.
“This has the potential to revolutionize the solar industry because the timber frames, which hold the solar panels, are cheaper than the conventional steel frames,” Gareth Jones with Carbon Zero Renewables commented on this partnership.
“The 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,” he added.
The world's first commercially produced timber solar panel frames are expected to be made at the Clifford Jones Timber Group's Brickfield Lane base near Ruthin.
They will come with a 25-year guaranteed lifespan, and no specialized equipment will be needed to set them in place at various sites.
The Clifford Jones Timber Group says that, should someone decide that they want their timber solar panels frames laminated, it will see to it that these customers get what they want thanks to a laminating plant that it owns in Ruthin.
In case anyone was wondering, the timber used to make these frames all comes from sustainable forests and is fully traceable, the Clifford Jones Timber Group wishes to stress.