Media & Recognition
This page brings together national media coverage, project features and industry recognition connected to Ian Hewson’s work on SOLCER House, the Active Classroom and monitored off-grid homes.
More than two decades of practical project experience now informs his independent whole-house energy strategy work for rural, self-build and off-grid homes.
SOLCER House — Britain’s First Energy-Positive House
National media coverage — BBC News and The Guardian
SOLCER House demonstrated how renewable generation, energy storage, building fabric and heating could be designed as one complete system.
The project received national coverage when it opened in Wales in 2015. At the time, Ian Hewson was a director of Ecolek Wales and was involved in the practical renewable energy delivery, helping turn the building’s whole-house energy strategy into a working system.
PROJECT RECOGNITION AND WIDER IMPACT
SOLCER House received the Breakthrough Project Award at the UK Buildings and Energy Efficiency Awards in 2015, followed by Sustainable Project of the Year at the Cynnal Cymru Awards in 2015.
Research arising from SOLCER House helped inform £91 million of Welsh Government investment and approximately 1,400 affordable and low-carbon homes across Wales.
Active Classroom — Energy-Positive Building Innovation
IAN HEWSON’S ROLE IN THE UK’S FIRST ENERGY-POSITIVE CLASSROOM
The Active Classroom was developed by Swansea University’s SPECIFIC Innovation and Knowledge Centre as the UK’s first energy-positive classroom — a working building designed to generate, store and release its own solar energy.
At the time, Ian Hewson was working with Solar Plants. The company’s off-grid team was involved in designing and installing the solar-to-storage connection, integrating 16 kWp of building-integrated solar PV with 60 kWh of Aquion saltwater battery storage and 24 kVA of Victron inverter-charger capacity.
As the research programme developed, the original Aquion saltwater batteries were replaced with zinc-bromine flow batteries. Both installations represented UK firsts, allowing the project team to evaluate two emerging energy-storage technologies within a working building.
The project brought together building-integrated solar generation, electrical and thermal storage, solar-heated cladding, heating and intelligent controls. It demonstrated that the building could produce more energy than it consumed while also providing a real teaching space and building-scale research facility.
The Active Classroom went on to receive major industry recognition, including the Constructing Excellence in Wales Innovation Award and RICS Wales awards for Design Through Innovation and Project of the Year.
Projects such as this helped shape the whole-house approach Ian Hewson now applies in his consultancy work, treating generation, storage, heating, fabric and controls as one integrated energy system.
Energy-positive classroom
Completed at Swansea University
Energy generated compared with energy consumed in its first year
Recognised by Constructing Excellence in Wales and RICS Wales
INDUSTRY RECOGNITION
Constructing Excellence in Wales Innovation Award — 2017
RICS Wales Design Through Innovation Award — 2018
RICS Wales Project of the Year — 2018
Wales Green Energy Award — 2017
LABC Wales, Best Public Service Building — 2018
The official Swansea University award coverage names Ian Hewson of SolarPlants as part of the Active Classroom project team. The project demonstrated how solar generation, energy storage, heating and intelligent controls could work together as one integrated building energy system.
APPLYING THIS EXPERIENCE TO NEW PROJECTS
Ian Hewson now applies the same practical, whole-house thinking to rural homes, self-builds and off-grid projects, helping clients make joined-up energy decisions before costly design and installation choices are fixed.