Dulas has completed a 9kWp solar install atop a new office building in the heart of London as the company continues to work almost exclusively in a new build sector driven by planning requirements and high building standards.
Speaking to Solar Power Portal earlier today, Dulas’ head of rooftop solar Chris White said new build represented “almost 100% of our work now”, with the installer having only worked on these projects so far in 2017.
While the majority of these projects have proved to be schools or university buildings, the latest install has been completed at Alderman’s House, an office building on the corner of Bishopsgate and Liverpool Street.
White added that successful completion of the project served to dispel the “mistaken belief” that shading often counteracts the benefit of solar on high rise developments.
Dulas was hired to install the array on the sloping eastern roof of the development and carried out shade loss simulations to account for the tower blocks surrounding the site. This provided performance analyses to maximise energy yield and allowed the installer to position the panels accordingly to avoid obstruction by the surrounding buildings.
Chris White, head of rooftop solar at Dulas, said: “There is often a mistaken belief that, because of the shade caused by taller buildings nearby, there is little benefit to installing rooftop solar arrays on high-rise buildings.
“Dulas’ ability to carry out detailed simulation analyses, and the thorough reports we then provide, demonstrate the substantial benefits of these installations in terms of sustainability and power generation – and Alderman’s House is a perfect example of this.”
The system was designed to provide 4% of the carbon savings needed to meet the building owners’ requirements, a factor which is driving the majority of Dulas’ work in the new build sector.
“It's being driven either by planning, so a local authority requirement, or more prestigious sites are being built to a BREEAM standard so they'll be a requirement to generate a certain proportion of energy on site, or offset a certain proportion of CO2 from the operation of the building,” White continued.”
Due to its long history in the UK solar sector, he added that the company was able to maintain this level of work due to its existing links with the construction industry, allowing its solar business to ride out “the FiT bubble.”