A newly constructed manufacturing factory in Hobsonville engaged us to design and install a system that would reduce their energy consumption and running costs, whilst also contributing to their sustainability initiative to achieve an Enviromark certification.
A manufacturing facility such as this is a prime candidate for Solar investment because they consume a substantial amount of energy, and the majority of their energy consumption is during daylight hours, and because they have a significant amount of roof space to utilise. During daylight hours when the business is closed the system will continue to generate and export energy back to the Grid for a credit. There is usually a faster payback period because the array can be depreciated as a fixed asset meaning the net Return on Investment is better than money in the bank. Solar is also a major contributor to any sustainability model regardless of the specific accreditation sought.
This system consists of 90 x 285W Trina modules flush mounted, and a SMA Sunny Tripower String Inverter suitable for three phase sites, resulting in an overall array size of 25.65kWp.
However, because this was a new building and the manufacturing business was also newly established, there was some uncertainly about the actual consumption levels. For this reason, we installed comparatively modest sized system with the intention of reviewing the data gathered over the course of a year to see if further expansion would be appropriate in the future. As well as the standard monitoring system that is provided by the SMA Inverter we also added another layer of reporting by incorporating a ‘Solar analytics’ system that overlays generation and consumption information which allows for more detailed analysis.
