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As a renewable energy installer, we are bound to certain regulations and schemes to operate, and then we have our own company goals of continued improvement that we have set internally as part of the ISO standards to ensure safety, quality and efficiency are built into the business processes.

And this year, it certainly feels like a year of updates! From building safety legislation to environmental management and installation standards, there are plenty of developments to keep us busy and opportunities to improve how we work.

Building Safety: Learning from the Past

The Building Safety Act 2022 is a key piece of legislation introduced following serious building safety failures, including the Grenfell Tower tragedy. It aims to strengthen building safety, improve accountability and help prevent similar incidents from happening again.

For those working within the construction and renewable energy sectors, it reinforces the importance of understanding our responsibilities and ensuring safety is considered throughout every stage of a project. Maintaining high standards and carrying out work correctly is essential to protecting both our customers and the wider public.

ISO 14001: Strengthening Environmental Responsibility 🍃

The ISO 14001 environmental management standard places greater emphasis on environmental considerations, including climate change, biodiversity and resource availability.

As a business specialising in solar PV, sustainability is particularly important to us. These developments encourage us to look beyond our installations and consider the wider environmental impact of our operations, the resources we use and the ways we can work even more sustainably.

By regularly reviewing our environmental practices, we can continue identifying opportunities to reduce our impact and support a greener future.

ISO 9001: Quality in an Evolving World 🤖

ISO 9001 helps us maintain consistent quality, improve our processes and ensure we deliver a reliable service to our customers.

With AI becoming increasingly common in business, quality management must also consider how this technology is used and the potential impact it can have on business processes and outcomes.

ISO 45001: Health, Safety and Wellbeing ☀️

Health and safety are fundamental to our work, and ISO 45001 provides a framework for identifying workplace risks, preventing injuries and creating safer working environments.

There is also an increasing focus on worker wellbeing and the effects of changing environmental conditions on health and safety. And, as anyone who has worked on-site during a hot summer will know – high temperatures can make working conditions much more challenging!

By continually reviewing our safety practices and supporting employee wellbeing, we can help ensure everyone has the knowledge and support they need to work safely.

MCS: A Greater Focus on Installation Quality 💪🏻

The redevelopment of the MCS installer standard brings a greater focus on the installations themselves and the quality of the work being carried out, rather than concentrating primarily on administrative processes.

While documentation and record-keeping remain important, the practical quality of an installation is just as vital. 

For us, it is a positive opportunity to keep developing our skills, reviewing our processes and maintaining high standards across every installation we complete.

Continuous Improvement for a Greener Future 💚

Although these updates cover different areas of our business, they share a common goal: improving safety, quality, environmental responsibility and the way we work.

As the renewable energy industry evolves, we want to evolve with it. By embracing change and maintaining our focus on quality, safety and sustainability, we can continue to develop our teams, improve the work we do and deliver the best possible service to our customers. 

Here's to continued improvement and raising standards across the renewable energy sector! 💚

It’s hard to believe we’re already approaching the halfway point of the year. As we reflect on the first six months of 2026, it’s been an incredibly busy and rewarding period for everyone here at Jonstar. From commercial properties and schools, to care homes and domestic homes, our team has been working hard to deliver high- quality solar PV installations that help our clients reduce energy costs, improve energy independence, and take meaningful steps towards a more sustainable future.

With energy prices continuing to be a key concern for businesses and homeowners alike, investing in renewable energy has never been more important. Solar power provides a long-term solution that not only helps reduce operating costs but also supports organisations in achieving their environmental and sustainability goals.

Our Projects So Far This Year

We're proud of every installation we've completed, with each project tailored to meet the specific needs of our clients. Over the past six months, our team has successfully delivered the following projects:

Broadmead Court – Part of the building refurbishment project
28 solar panels
30.26kWp system
This commercial installation will help generate clean, renewable electricity while reducing reliance on grid energy and supporting long-term operational savings.

Alexandra Primary School – Part of the building refurbishment project
10 solar panels
4.45kWp system
Schools are increasingly looking at ways to reduce energy expenditure while educating future generations about sustainability. This installation will help lower electricity costs and contribute towards a greener learning environment.

Drakelow School – Part of a new build project
26 solar panels
11.7kWp system
Another fantastic education sector project, providing renewable energy that can help reduce running costs and support the school's commitment to environmental responsibility.

Mattesley, Watermill & Winehala Care Homes – Retrofit project aimed to increase energy efficiency and reduce bills.
156, 277 and 172 solar panels
Three care homes installed
Combined capacity of 275.53k
This has been one of our largest projects so far this year. Care homes have significant and consistent energy demands, making solar an excellent investment. By installing solar PV across all three sites, these facilities are well positioned to reduce their electricity costs while continuing to provide high-quality care for their residents.

Rushes Lane & Stone House Lodge – Refurbishment and new build projects for new homeowners
11 and 6 solar panels
Two domestic installations
4.84kWp and 2.7kWp systems
We're equally passionate about helping homeowners benefit from renewable energy. These domestic installations will enable the homeowners to generate their own electricity, reduce household energy bills, and lower their carbon emissions for years to come.

Making a Collective Impact

Across these eight installations, we've delivered more than 320kWp of new solar generating capacity. Every panel installed represents another step towards cleaner energy, lower carbon emissions, and greater energy resilience for our clients.

While the numbers are something we're proud of, it's the positive impact these systems will have over their lifetime that matters most. From helping schools redirect savings into education, to supporting businesses in managing operational costs, and
enabling homeowners to become less dependent on rising energy prices, every project contributes to a more sustainable future.

None of these achievements would be possible without the dedication of our installation teams, project managers, and support staff, whose expertise and commitment ensure every project is delivered safely and to the highest standards.

We'd also like to thank all of our clients for placing their trust in Jonstar. It's a privilege to work alongside organisations and homeowners who share ourbcommitment to renewable energy and sustainability.

Looking Ahead

The first half of the year has set a fantastic foundation, but we're only just getting started. We have an exciting pipeline of projects ahead and look forward to helping even more businesses, schools, public sector organisations, and homeowners harness the benefits of solar energy.

As the demand for renewable energy continues to grow, Jonstar remains committed to delivering reliable, high-quality solar solutions that help our clients lower their energy costs, reduce their carbon footprint, and build a more sustainable future.

Here's to another successful six months!

Jonstar has been involved with several projects at County Hall for Leicestershire
County Council – from new installations, maintenance work, and upgrades to the
existing systems that had failed.

As part of a major decarbonisation initiative in 2021, our team installed solar PV
systems across the Rutland Building South, Pen Lloyd Higher Roof, and Pen Lloyd
Lower Roof. Together, these installations total 227.25kWp and help reduce carbon
emissions by an estimated 37.04 tonnes of CO₂ every year.

We also carried out a full assessment of the existing PV systems on site. With
several inverters offline and beyond their warranty period, we proposed upgrading
the systems to SolarEdge technology. This upgrade gave a new lease of life,
improving energy output, enhancing fire safety, and extending the system warranty
to 12 years. In total, 86.45kWp of existing systems were successfully upgraded
across three arrays.

Altogether, Jonstar has now been involved in deploying and upgrading 313.7kWp of
solar PV at County Hall, Leicester.

A fantastic project to be part of – and what a great view from this drone shot!

On one of our current sites where Jonstar are installing over 300kWp of Solar PV across four new industrial units in Market Harborough, we were invited to a morning Health and Safety (SHAD) event run by the Principal Contractor, Britcon (UK) Limited. This was a free event to demonstrate, and practice emergency rescuing at height scenarios and involved the site contractors, UKWS, the Fire Service and Britcon. The site was non-operational during the event showing the commitment of Britcon to Health and Safety in the construction industry while the teams on site could benefit from some time to see how operatives are protected by collective measures such as netting under roofs and in an emergency rescued using scissor lifts, cherry pickers and ultimately if necessary the Fire Service. There was also a mobile training centre with a virtual reality simulator for operating MEWPS courtesy of Nationwide Platforms.

It’s #FeedbackFriday! This week we were sent a lovely review from a client whose 72kW system we installed nearly 3 years ago – and they’re still recommending us to this day!

“The Installation Project itself was flawless, RAMS were supplied in plenty of time, the kit was ordered in a timely fashion and installation started on the promised date. The Installation team (Jonstar) was led by Ben Tyrrell who kept us fully informed throughout the two weeks he was on site, once complete, he then took the time to complete the Solar Edge Registration for us and ensured our monitors were all working as they should.

The system continues to work with no issues as well today as it did back in Nov 2022 – We have produced 142mWh of electricity across the lifetime of the system and have seen some exceptional results for the time of year given the weather we have had.

I would strongly recommend the three companies who worked together flawlessly to ensure we received the system we needed – Save Money Cut Carbon, C-U-B and Jonstar Sustainable Technologies.”

We completed our largest array to date at a Hospital in the North East.

1520x DAS 440W Solar Panels, 4 x 100kW inverters, and 668.8kWp – that’s 668.8kWp generating 515,000kWh a year. The system is fully optimised on SolarEdge technology, fitted on a Van Der Valk flat roof system using ballasted feet rather than the standard rubber.

The annual CO2 emission saved will be 105.48 tonnes (that’s equivalent to 4,845 trees planted every year!)

This is part of a wider improvement of the site where there will also be a ground source heat pump installed.  The new plant room will also include a switch room for the inverters, which we expect to be built over the next two months. We’re all excited to continue working on this project!

Fire Safety in PV installations is a big topic right now and something that is at the top of our agenda to ensure that at Jonstar we are leading the way using all of the best technology and specialist risk assessments to ensure we design and deliver systems that provide value for money, huge savings on electric bills and peace of mind that the systems are safe.

In 2017 RC62 guidelines for fire safety in pv were developed by the RISC Authority in conjunction with the Micro Generation Certification Scheme (MCS), further to this Zurich also released a white paper on the design, installation and maintenance of solar pv systems in August 2023.  This was just after the release of the latest RC62 document in February 2023.  These are all guidelines released by important stakeholders in the PV industry; however, they aren’t the regulations that the industry must abide by below:

• MIS3002 The Solar PV Standard (Installation) 
• IET Code of Practice for Grid-connected Solar Photovoltaic Systems (referred to within this document as the IET PV Code of Practice)
• BS7671 IET Wiring Regulations Eighteenth Edition

At Jonstar we apply the regulations and advise on the guidelines to try and ensure that each installation has a well balanced approach between what’s feasible to achieve once the potential array, safety and cost have been assessed.

Typically, Jonstar install SolarEdge on sites due to the advanced fire safety features compared with standard string inverters.  The system has optimisers protecting each panel on the roof and controlling the output.  The system has rapid shutdown, so each string drops below 30 volts within 30 seconds by the optimisers throttling the output of each panel to 1 volt.

Rapid shutdown is activated by thermal detection of temperatures above 85 degrees at the optimisers on the roof, loss of power to the inverter (at any isolation point) and if an arc fault is detected.  Monitoring of the system can be done remotely even down to panel level.  Additionally, a Firefighter Gateway can be installed linked to the inverters and the fire alarm system via an interface for automatic or manual shutdown of the system in the event there is a fire.  The Gateway displays the string voltages and the operational status of the system so that the fire service can clearly see if SafeDC has been activated.  Because DC Isolation is achieved electronically on the roof via the optimisers there is also no requirement for rotary DC Isolators that contribute to the majority of Solar PV fires.