Solar Panels at Green Park Studios
Our new studio at Green Park Mews in the middle of Bath includes an array of 44 solar PV panels with for those that understand these things) a peak output of 20.9KWp. This makes it one of the largest installations in Bath, aside from a handful of much larger installations on institutional buildings such as schools, the leisure centre and the Royal United Hospital.
Even though we were committed anyway to getting off the gas, we were very pleased that our installation was supported by a grant of almost 50% of the cost by the WECA ( West of England Combined Authority).
Our two buildings, 20 and 21 Green Park Studios, are now each provided with heating and hot water by an Airsource Heat Pump – installed by WDS Green Energy – (highly recommended), with the heating being delivered by wet underfloor heating downstairs and radiators above.
We decided against a battery installation because – unlike for residential use where a battery works well when you want the day’s generation saved for the evening – these are workplaces which use energy in the daytime but very little after dark. So the theory is that we’ll export loads of spare power to the grid during the summer months, and then use up the credit we’ve accrued during the winter. With an outlay cost of about £13k we calculate a payback of less than 5 years.
There is provision for car charging as well, so in theory we could charge up a car with “Bi Directional” capability during the day and use it during the winter evenings and those late night working sessions to power the building.
2027 will be the first full year of occupation, so we’ll try to monitor the usage and export, and we are hopeful that the anticipated 19,000 KWh/year will be enough to cover all our electrical needs, including heating and hot water.
We’ll let you know!