The Requirement
Community Buildings form an important role in many of our lives. Often the running of them takes time, effort and in every case money. The constant outgoing bills to run the premises for local residents are ever increasing, reducing what can be spent more meaningfully elsewhere.
Investment in solar/battery can often prove a brilliant way to reduce the outgoings, and potentially generate some income from surplus generation.
We have found also that Community projects can very often be funded through renewables and energy funds, often ultimately from money from wind farm developments nearby.
This project was exactly that, and with money available and plenty of roof space we were able to make a huge dent in the running costs of Crawfordjohn Community Hall. They already had a heat pump system but it was proving costly to run, so solar/battery was an obvious solution.
The Proposal
Solar PV was chosen, as the site lends itself to the technology. Paired with battery storage to help spread the generation over the day so that the main consumers, the heat pumps, could be fed from the locally produced clean and cheap energy for more of their run time. There was lots of roof space available on the building, in several orientations. It was decided to maximise the size of the system and use all of the roof spaces.
The System We Provided
Solar and Wind Applications designed, installed and commissioned:
111 x REC 365W Twinpeak 4 Solar PV Modules
GSE Integration mounting system (chosen to reduce total mass on the roof)
1 x SolarEdge 25kW Solar Inverter, with Optimisers
4 x Tesla Powerwall 2 batteries
The Environmental Benefits
The system will greatly reduce the site’s imported electricity consumption, displacing with their own renewable electricity generation. This has significant carbon savings associated.
The system was estimated to produce 28.900kWh per year, saving around 12,500 tonnes of CO2 per year.
Since installation in late 2022 the system has produced average around 31,000kWh per year, showing that the premium equipment chosen is working hard at maximising the genreation available.
The battery system helping to reduce the running costs, particularly in the shoulder months when there’s both heat demand and solar available. They have been working on “self-consumption” methodology since the site has not been able to engage in a time of use tariff.
Export income has also played a significant role in reducing the annual cost, ofsetting the inevitable winter bills. There’s around 12,000kWh exported annually.
What We Did
We were approached by the community who already had a project manager we had worked with before on another project locally. They were happy to be able to partner with us again on this one. We collaborated with the planning/building warrant process as well as other trades (lightning protection, and a roofer also known to the project manager) in order to smoothly deliver this project.
The roof integration required a lot of labour to remove the existing roof tiles. Integration was chosen due to some question on the roof structure (it had been modified for now disused air ducting), and the roof tiles were unusal and also no longer available for spares. The end result though looks great.
We commissioned the system and provide ongoing support to the Community who operate the building.
Want to know more?
Of course you can give us a call or email to discuss this, or any other of our systems. This site are very happy to chat about their project, or invite you for a tour. Get in touch with us and we can put you in touch with them.
