The Client
Barnard Castle School, Barnard Castle
The Brief
To install and commission solar panels to a school boarding house roof.
The Activity:
We were delighted to have been awarded a tendered contract by Barnard Castle School, to work in collaboration with their facilities team, and deliver the first phase of solar panel installation for the school.
The school is a high user of electrical power, offering schooling for both day and boarding pupils, and so this move towards generating their own solar produced electrical power is a great start to reducing both the financial costs of the school and future reliance on the National Grid.
Following an initial inspection, the team designed and installed a 3 Phase Solar Edge system to maximise the solar power collection by ensuring each of the 40 x 465w Aiko all black solar panels was fitted with an optimiser, and were secured in place utilising the specialist Renusol mounting system. In addition, Enviroguard bird protection was fitted to prevent birds from nesting and affecting the performance of the panels, a Solar Edge 16kW 3 phase inverter, a Solar Edge 3 Phase Generation meter with Modbus connection, all supplied by Greentech UK in Middlesborough.
Due to the high demand for energy by the school, we estimated that all the solar power energy that is produced will be used by the school, and so, at this point, there was no requirement for solar battery storage to be installed, although this is a possibility in the future as a post panel installation option.
The team worked hard to complete the project within the Easter holiday constraints, working around other building works taking place on-site at the same time, and battling the less than enjoyable weather conditions, that put works on hold for a couple of days due to safety issues caused by the stormy weather.
Our thanks go out to our working partner Mark Wilson Roofing, for working alongside the team on the solar power installation.
The Result:
Our initial estimate on savings for the school, made initially during our assessment period, would be an annual generation of over 19,500 kWh of energy and 3.8 tonnes of CO2 savings, the equivalent to planting 175 trees each year.
“Tomlinson Longstaff Ltd were recommended to me, and have recently completed a 40 panel solar energy project for me at Barnard Castle School; the works were carried out in a sensitive location. This required thorough planning, a high quality installation and regular communication throughout the process.
Alicia dealt with everything thoroughly from conception to completion, even as far as arranging extended warranties on the inverter. I would recommend the business and will certainly use them again at Barnard Castle School.”
– Steven Blakemore, Director of Estates and Facilities, Barnard Castle School
You can read more about our solar energy and renewable tech installations here.
Tomlinson Longstaff Ltd is an electrical contractor based in Country Durham, north east England. We offer a wide range of electrical services including design, testing, installation and maintenance.