As part of the university’s ongoing sustainability strategy, they were looking to add Solar PV to 8 existing buildings across the campus. This is a continuation of the university’s long-term efforts to reduce its carbon footprint.
We were appointed as the Principal Contractor and Designer. The installation was under full CDM regulations with all drawings, RAMS, CPP etc provided.
The project possessed its challenges as the installations would be going ahead whilst over 29,000 students were on the campus. Crane lifts, scaffold erecting, material deliveries and shutdowns all had to be conducted with minimal disruption to the ongoing operations on site. We worked with the client to arrange an onsite compound and weekend lifts to deliver the best results.
We pride ourselves on providing an engineering solution to an engineering problem. As such, equipment selection is an essential part of the process.
Carbon savings were a key driver for the university, so we proposed a Eurener 450W All Black panel. Recent studies have shown the embodied carbon of a European solar panel is around 25% of the equivalent panel supplied from Asia.
Another key factor was safety and risk management. That made the inverter choice easy. SolarEdge provide market leading safety features with their inverter and optimisers solutions. These include safe DC, arc detection and interruption, and firefighter gateways.
The total system of 904kw (2,009 panels) is expected to generate 795MWh per annum with 154 tonnes of carbon saved, the equivalent to 7,058 trees.
The system will save £198,000 per annum and payback within 6 years.
If you’re looking to bring your energy bills down to size and secure your future energy supply, take a closer look at our commercial solar panel systems.
With over 30 years’ experience in the energy services sector, the Aztec Solar Energy team work with your business to design, finance, install, optimise and help you get maximum benefit from your solar PV system. So, switching over to cleaner, greener working is simple and seamless.
