Cheshire-based renewable energy developer and energy cost reduction company Renewables 4 Business has completed the installation of a 681kWp rooftop solar power plant for a potato producer in north Lincolnshire. Renewables 4 Business claims that once the project was committed to the company’s sales, design, procurement and operations team co-ordinated 10 installers to complete the project in eight weeks. The plant is expected to be worth an estimated £100,000 per year in terms of savings and income.

The client, E Park and Sons, spent more than two years researching the project before appointing Renewables 4 Business to design, supply and install the plant. According to Renewables 4 Business, the site and E Park & Sons’ pattern of daily activities posed several unique challenges.

In use 24 hours a day and with a one-way system for traffic around it, delivering materials to the site without causing disruption had to be carefully coordinated. The system loads an extra 54 tonnes of weight across the two roofs it occupies, with appropriate structural surveys carried out to ensure it could be supported. Finally, interconnection to the grid was only possible after the local connection was upgraded to accommodate the installation, due to its size.

The PV generation capacity of the plant is split across two arrays, one being a 586.5kWp array on the main building and the remaining 94.5kWp capacity installed on a cold store building. BenQ 250W panels were used, 2,742 in total, alongside inverters and monitoring systems by Delta. The panels were fixed to the roof with an S-Flex short sheet rail mounting bracket system.

Advantages for the potato producer in adding generation capacity from the rooftop PV plant include the ability to better factor energy supply costs into profit and loss forecasts.

E Park & Sons’ supply deals include supermarkets and public sector customers, many of which are now looking to source stock from suppliers which are lowering their carbon footprint. The new plant therefore gives the company an extra competitive edge.