PV Tech Storage recently visited Crossway, which was the UK’s first retrospectively accredited Passivhaus, described by its owner and designer, architect Richard Hawkes as the “best performing” in the country. It was also featured on popular UK home and lifestyle programme Grand Designs, with the show’s presenter Kevin McCloud praising the arched-roof design of the house as “one of the great illusions of architecture, pulled off here with utter bravado”. The occasion for the visit was the installation of a lithium-ion battery storage system with built-in energy management, by Chinese solar company ReneSola.
Watch Richard Hawkes of Hawkes Architecture and Joe Van Wyk of Renesola talk us through the install.
Videographer Fergus March and reporter Andy Colthorpe interviewed Richard, who also lives in the house with his family and spoke with Joe Van Wyk, technical support officer for ReneSola, who discussed how the system operates, while he and an electrician worked to install it.
The system's interface allows the user to assess the performance of the system. Image: Fergus March.
Richard Hawkes outside Crossway, which is also his family's home. Image: Fergus March.
This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription
Enjoy 12 months of exclusive analysis
- Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
- In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
- Annual digital subscription to the PV Tech Power journal
- Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual