Renewable specialists TGE Group has recently completed a three-phase commercial solar PV installation for Patrick Dean, a Lincolnshire farming company that produces 14,000 pigs a year for Morrisons supermarket, in order to reduce energy costs at their 570 sow pig unit following ongoing concern regarding the farm’s rising energy bills.
On the back of a comprehensive site survey, TGE Group designed, built and installed a bespoke system involving two roof mounted solar PV systems as well as a ground mounted system. With a seven year payback, the combined 200kWp installations will generate 170,000kWh of energy whilst providing an impressive 13% return on investment and save 90 tonnes of carbon per year.
Alastair Priestley, managing director of Patrick Dean, commented: “The pressure of constantly rising energy prices motivated us to look at alternative options that would help reduce the business’ costs and, with it, risk. The solar project offered a sound financial investment which will significantly bring down our energy bills whilst reducing our exposure to market fluctuations. TGE Group clearly understood our requirements and took control of every aspect of the project, from start to finish, working efficiently with minimum disruption to our day to day operations.”
With a fairly constant electricity demand throughout the year between heating and cooling, the farm expects to use 100% of electricity generated on site. The system can be adjusted for heating or cooling and brings in revenue through the Renewable Heat Incentive and Feed-in Tariff schemes. To ensure optimum performance is maintained and any drop in output is immediately highlighted, TGE Group also installed a monitoring system.
Stephen Davies, director at TGE Group, added; “It’s important to select the right renewables for the job and to ensure that the systems are effectively monitored to maintain performance. There was a great opportunity here for Patrick Dean to reduce their costs and we delighted to have helped deliver a double digit return on their investment whilst also protecting them for energy price rises.”
