The buildings, separately housing standard and organic potatoes, require large amounts of energy to power internal cooling systems, keeping harvested potatoes at a constant low temperature. With electricity usage metered at half-hourly rates, this previously resulted in massive energy bills for the farm owners.
To tackle these costs, the farm owners have decided to purchase Kingspan Roof Mounted PV System and Safetraxx® system. Installed on the roofs of the storage buildings, the PV system comprises a little over one thousand five hundred, 235Wp crystalline PV modules.
Lavenham Fen Farm’s PV system can produce an overall output of 352.7 kWp, making it one of the largest roof mounted PV arrays in the UK.
Robert Pickard, Estates Manager for co-owners Abbots Ripton Farming Company, comments:
“We have found it difficult to produce electricity by wind or hydroelectric power, so PV is an excellent solution. The buildings are tall and the visual impact of the panels is minimal. There is also a secondary benefit of fitting the panels to the roofs, as in the summer, they trap the solar energy which reduces the temperature on the roof sheets below the panels.
The production of electricity during expensive peak periods is of great benefit to ourselves and to the consumer as all energy generated onsite is channelled directly into powering the potato storage facility.”
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