News Article
Met Office's 250 KW PV Contract Awarded To SunGift Solar
The Met Office has awarded the contract to design and install a 250 kW solar PV array at its HQ in Exeter to SunGift Solar.
The huge array, which is one of the largest roof-top solar PV installations in the UK, will stretch across the roof of the Met Office's 150 metre long Energy Centre. It includes 1,000 solar PV panels and will generate enough green electricity to meet the demand from one of the Met Office's powerful new supercomputers.
Work has already started work on the system, which is due to be completed next month.
"The Met Office is a world leader in weather and climate services, so it's great news we were chosen from the tender process to carry out this prestigious job," said Gareth Walton, business development manager of Exeter-based SunGift, the current South West Renewable Energy Installer of the Year. "Our emphasis has always been on providing bespoke solutions that are at the cutting edge of technology, so we're proud of the fact that our high level of technical knowledge and experience has been recognised."
The 250 kW array will generate 221,000 kW hours of electricity per year "“ enough to power the equivalent of 67 houses "“ and will save about 116 tonnes of C02 per year. The system will be linked to the Met Office's sophisticated Electricity Management System, enabling up-to-the-minute monitoring of the panels' performance.
The competitive tender process, which saw SunGift up against a host of respected national renewable energy installers, required the company to submit detailed system designs to meet the Met Office's specifications.
Gareth added: "Despite being up against a number of much larger companies, we demonstrated exceptional technical knowledge and understanding to design the best system to meet the Met Office's requirements. We also have a high degree of experience in renewables and a tremendous passion to provide the highest levels of customer service."
Peter Clayton-White, Building Services Engineer at the Met Office, said: "On a sunny day this array will generate enough energy to run one of our three supercomputers on sunshine, significantly reducing the carbon footprint of our energy supply. We hope to have a display in our reception so everyone can see how much energy the array is generating at any one time and how much is going to the supercomputer."
The system includes:
"¢ Modules: 1,000 Canadian Solar CS6P 250M 250Wp monocrystalline modules
"¢ Inverters: 14 x Sputnik Engineering SolarMax 15MT2 inverters and 2 x Sputnik Engineering SolarMax 10MT2 inverters
"¢ More than 4km of cable
"¢ More than 2km of aluminium mounting rail
