Solar PV Chosen as Driving Force of Regeneration
Arch, the company responsible for investment, development and economic regeneration in Northumberland, had a priority: to drive growth by cutting not only its own power bills, but also those of the families living in its housing in the Ashington Hirst area.
An Investment in Long Term Savings
The Northumberland development company explored various technologies to cut power consumption and lower their own and their tenant’s power bills, and soon opted for solar. By investing in solar, Arch could drive regeneration in the county, as well as lock in long-term savings.
Arch turned to Saving Energy Renewables North East, a leading renewable energy installer in the area. They chose to work with the company based on their strong track record in carrying out similar large scale commercial solar projects. As a result of such projects, they have helped bring vulnerable people in the community out of fuel poverty through installing energy efficient measures that have significantly reduced their fuel bills.
Safely Overcoming Design Challenges
Arch’s housing project brought design challenges that were easily solved with Enphase. Almost all of the houses have roofs with a 70-degree variance from south, and many have extension roof’s as well as the main roof construction. This created a challenge for traditional string solar designs, as it meant installing and linking two separate arrays on a single property. Additionally, shading from surrounding trees made it imperative that available daylight was optimised.
Being not only a development company, but also a large private landlord, Arch takes safety of residents very seriously. With the Enphase System there is no high voltage DC cable within the house-making it a perfect solution. In terms of the safety of the Saving Energy workforce, the Enphase System also allowed installers to work safely, efficiently, and quickly across multiple rooftops.
Enphase, Built to Last
Reliability is always at the forefront of Saving Energy’s standards and the systems it provides. With Enphase’s track record proven by millions of installed units and its quality backed up by a 20-year warranty, both the client and Saving Energy have absolute confidence in the quality and durability of the Enphase System. Enphase’s monitoring platform, Enlighten, will allow the client to display its system’s generation, and serves as a great tool for reporting on its investment. The installation commenced late July 2014 and is due for completion early 2015.
FIT revenue from this installation is planned to be re-invested into further development. Saving Energy will be looking at replicating residential installs onto Arch’s commercial buildings and continuing the key objective of exceeding their client’s expectations.
