by Duncan Crosthwaite | Aug 8, 2014
With the first year’s performance figures in, Guise Farm has produced 48,482kWh. The solar PV system, which has a production capacity of 50kWp is south-facing and utilises high quality Solarworld solar panels, was estimated to produce 43,138kWh using the government-approved SAP calculation method we give to all of our customers when predicting system performance. That’s a 12% better yield than was predicted and if that performance continues then Guise Farm will see their ROI cut to 6 years.
Duncan Crosthwaite, from Ceiba Renewables said of the Guise Farm performance figures, “It’s great to see the performance exceed the SAP calculations. As with all of the Solarworld and Sunpower PV systems we’ve installed, not only are we confident that they will continue to exceed the SAP calculations now but because of the quality of these PV systems they will continue to outperform the SAP estimates well into the future.
The performance figures are particularly useful to those considering to invest in solar PV as it gives customers a clear indication that the PV system will perform better than what is stated in the estimates.”
by Duncan Crosthwaite | Jul 10, 2014
When we undertake technical surveys for customers there can be certain design challenges. These may come in the form of having a small roof, shading issues at different parts of the day, and maybe different orientations and angles of the roof to deal with.
Such was the case for two of our recent customers in Ayrshire. After conducting shade analysis and panel layout it was decided a traditional PV system wasn’t going to be suitable. However, different parts of the roof benefited from great exposure to the sun at different parts of the day so solar PV still made sense, we just needed a flexible design coupled with the world’s most efficient and durable panel. Step in Solar Edge’s power optimiser system with Sunpower panels.
The results have been impressive so far. Despite not being south facing and having shading issues, the systems are kicking out around 20kWh of power on a sunny day with the lowest amount of production so far this month (this article was composed on 10th July 2014) being 6kWh on a rainy day and the highest being 26kWh. Even though there hasn’t been a full day of cloudless skies the systems have averaged 19.3kWh per day for July. We just need a period of clear days to boost those production numbers even higher!
The images above show a screenshot of the PV system’s performance taken on the morning of 10th July. Every SolarEdge system is linked to the internet to give real time and historic information of every individual panel in the system. It’s great for fault finding and showing performance info. We can see how the effect of the dormer window causes one panel to be behind the others in terms of production – if this had been a traditional system this would have caused the other panels to produce a similar output as the worst performing one, but because of the power optimisers the other panels can produce to their maximum potential. Interestingly we can also see that the panels oriented more to the west than the south facing ones have produced more so far this week – this will be due to the weather conditions for this period being more favourable later in the afternoon than earlier in the day.
by Duncan Crosthwaite | Jul 10, 2014
Finally a bit of time to do some updates! So what’s been happening?
We installed a 200A 3-phase Voltage Optimiser for J. Pieroni & Sons http://www.pieronis.com/ . The unit (the white box in the picture) looks simple enough but it should deliver savings of £4,000 every year.
It does this by reducing the incoming voltage to the building. Through a one week power survey and electricity bills we identified that the average incoming voltage was 243V and annual consumption is around 400,000kWh. Our Voltage Optimiser reduces the voltage to the optimum that Pieroni’s equipment is designed to run at (220V) and there we having our savings.
Using good old Ohms law if Power = Voltage x Current, then if 243V x 1A = 243 Watts of power, by reducing the voltage to 220V, 1A of power is 220W. That’s a saving of around 9%.
The above calculation is a generalisation but you get the idea. The best savings come from instances where motors and inductive loads (such as refrigeration) are the major consumer of electricity so Pieronis stand to make great savings.
by Duncan Crosthwaite | Mar 31, 2014
What happens when you’re determined to have the best solar panels money can buy and you combine them with power optimisers that increase energy yields by tracking power points across each panel? An excellent energy yield is what happens! In March, our customer’s 9.81kWp Sunpower PV system generated 797kWh which, with the days lengthening, means the system is well on target to exceed its SAP calculation of generating 7,481kWh per annum.
As you can see from the stats taken from SolarEdge’s advanced monitoring system, the lowest output on one day this March was 4.7kWh but the highest output was 51.1kWh. For our customers that’s a lot of self-generated solar power they can use in their house.
Sunpower’s 327W solar panels are incredibly efficient, have industry-leading warranties – a 25 year product warranty and a maximum degradation warranty of <0.3% – and give higher yields than any other module we’ve seen on the market. SolarEdge power optimisers harvest greater yields by individually tracking the optimum power point of each panel, they allow greater flexibility when designing the PV system, meaning we can fit more panels on the roof, they enhance the safety of the PV system by shutting down the DC cables when the system is shut down, and the advanced monitoring portal means we can analyse system performance in great detail. Combining both Sunpower and SolarEdge is a winning formula we’re keen to promote to future customers.
If you’d like to find out more please get in touch!
by Duncan Crosthwaite | Apr 16, 2013
April has been an exciting month for us so far having completed the installation of our energy monitoring system at AFM House at the end of March. As the images below show, our 4kWp solar PV system has been producing more power than we consume during the day meaning during office hours the office is running on 100% renewable electricity. Essentially we will have eliminated 90% of the building’s electricity bill from March to October which we’re delighted about.
Contact us today for a free survey to see how we can help reduce your property’s energy bills.
Image: taken from enistic.
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Energy Monitoring at AFM House, 6 Crofthead Road, Prestwick.
by Duncan Crosthwaite | Apr 8, 2013
We are delighted to announce that Ceiba Renewables Ltd has graduated from the Carbon Trust Scotland’s Carbon Management Programme. This commits us to reducing our carbon footprint by 40% saving 28 tonnes of Carbon and saving £12,375! Through our shared office facilities with Firstax.co.uk at AFM House, our plan involves reducing the office carbon emissions & energy overheads drastically.
On the road to achieving these goals we have so far installed a 4kWp solar PV system and an energy monitoring & management system at the head office, and we have more projects in the pipeline including LED lighting and waste management. We’re already seeing the benefits of these changes and we’d be happy to show anyone around our offices to demonstrate how these technologies can be utilised to reduce your energy overheads & carbon footprint, please call us to make an appointment.
Ceiba Renewables presented Carbon Management Programme graduation plaque by Energy Minister Fergus Ewing MSP.
