Photovoltaic Case Study

Quirepace, Fairham

ViridianUK was approached by Quirepace concerning the provision of a photovoltaic (PV) installation on a site that they were due to re-locate to in Fairham, Hampshire. The site consisted of one large medium span portal frame building with roofs with an east and west aspect and a two floor office building with integrated flat roof surrounded by a pitched tiled roof that faces south.

Given that the client had not used either of the buildings, historical energy used that could determine the appropriate size of a PV system was not available. Viridian UK therefore conducted a study of the client’s present energy use in their existing buildings and considered their expansion proposals to make recommendations for PV arrays on both the industrial building and the office building.

Viridian UK presented the proposals to the client as part of their tendering process and duly won the contract on both price and service offered. It was clear from the client’s analysis of Viridian UK’s proposal, that it was not only the best value for money, but also offered services that no other installer would include within their quotations. These services included the provision of a one-stop shop for all necessary surveys and certifications, assistance with FiT and ROO-FiT applications, provision of metering services and the provision of monitoring systems. Scaffolding and health and safety training was also incorporated into the proposal.

The proposal was to install a 100kW east/west system on the industrial building and an 11kW south facing flat roof system on the office building and following an application for a small generation connection under G59 regulations to the local network operation (DNO), installation commenced at the beginning of October 2016 and was commissioned around 2 weeks later. During the installation, Viridian UK also made remedial repairs to the ridge of the roof and lighting in the industrial unit.

Viridian UK used high efficiency British made solar panels for the installation and combined these with Solis Solar Inverters.

Viridian UK is fully MCS compliant and has ensured that its technicians have installed the system to both MCS regulations and commercial wiring regulations to at least 17th Edition requirements. Viridian UK has provided isolators on each string and on the mains supply to each inverter from a compliant distribution board.
Currently, the system is operating at around 22% above expectations and as a result, the client is extremely satisfied with the installation, which on current figures will provide a return on investment of around 4.3 years.

The client wrote to us following the completion of the installation with these words “We would just like to say thank you very much for all the work you have done towards our PV installation. You made it an easy process for us for which we are grateful.

Operationally, ViridianUK has experience of being involved with feasibility studies for around 120mW of commercial installations and installation of over 300 domestic and commercial systems. In total, ViridianUK’s installation teams have installed over 10mW of solar PV in the UK (domestic up to 4kW and commercial of between 4 and 250kW). ViridianUK is fully conversant with G59 and G83 design requirements and is more than able to complete FiT and ROOFiT applications as necessary.