Shropshire-based salad grower PDM Produce now benefits from solar energy thanks to its recently-installed 140kWp roof-mounted system. The company decided to install a solar energy system as it was keen to do something to reduce its carbon footprint but was also concerned with the impact that rising electricity costs will have on business.
The work on the 140kW project was carried out by The Green Electrician, which installed 759 Sharp solar modules coupled with a Trivent mounting system and eight SMA inverters.
“Being a salad producer, we are a power hungry farm and we use three times as much power in the summer, mostly during the day, so the Solar PV technology is a perfect match for us. It also blends into the environment, no one can see it on the roof and that means no complaints. When electricity prices go up it will decrease payback time, another advantage,” said PDM Produce owner, Philip Maddocks.
“We are very unhappy at the Government review for systems over 50kWp, we think the Government has missed the point. This is highly frustrating as our 140kWp installation was phase one of a two phase project, but at this rate it will have to stop here.
“The Green Electrician was excellent. We did considerable research before choosing the right company and this meant getting through a lot who were less experienced. We are very happy with our choice, we got honest answers and they were highly professional at every stage.”
Operations Director of The Green Electrician, David Young OBE, said, “This system demonstrates just how ideally matched this technology can be for the agricultural sector. We have a further five 100kWp farm systems being completed before 1 August 2011, each with their own high efficiency monitoring system to alert us to any loss in performance and potential loss of revenue for the farm. After this we will be installing 50kWp systems for farms across the region, still a great investment and excellent source of additional on-farm revenue.”