Installations
Solarcentury is the UK’s most experienced EPC contractor for ground mounted PV installations having installed multiple plants in the UK and Europe ranging from 50 kW ballasted systems to 5MW pile driven systems. Solarcentury developed the first ground mount project in Cornwall Wheale Jane, which was also one of the UK's first ground mount projects to be built on a brown field site. It was once the site of a famous tin mine, this solar park represents a shift to clean energy.
One of Solarcentury's newest projects includes the world’s largest solar bridge at Blackfrairs.The new Blackfriars station – which is being built on a bridge spanning the River Thames – is on its way to becoming the world’s largest solar bridge as Solarcentury begins the installation of over 4,400 solar photovoltaic (PV) panels.
Solarcentury have completed over 1000 large installations, and thousands of home installations, as well as 150 installations for schools through the Solar4Schools programme. The total installed capacity at the end of 2008 was about 6 MWp.
One of the most well known Solarcentury installations is the CIS tower in Manchester, UK, where solar cladding was used to replace the old, damaged cladding and create a solar PV array with a generation capacity of 391 kWp.
The CIS project created the largest commercial solar facade in Europe, and is one of the largest PV systems in the UK. It demonstrates how Solar Rain Screen Cladding can be readily incorporated into building refurbishments to provide an extremely cost effective alternative to conventional cladding materials. The CIS solar tower will generate enough electricity to light 61 average three-bed houses every year.
Other projects include the UK's first solar street of 23 new affordable, stylish and low carbon homes in Henley Way, Rotherham, built by South Yorkshire Housing Association’s (SYHA). Every home on the development has been installed with Solarcentury’s CompleteSolarRoof system. This is a low carbon building product which allows housebuilders to use solar photovoltaics (PV) and solar thermal to help reduce the carbon emissions of a new home by generating clean, renewable electricity in a silent and unobtrusive way. The CompleteSolarRoof from Solarcentury is a system of solar PV and solar thermal roof tiles that, to the observer, look exactly like standard roof tiles. However, consisting of C21e (solar electric) tiles and C21t (solar thermal) titles, the CompleteSolarRoof generates electricity and hot water for the home. Offering significant savings on the householder’s energy bills, the C21t tiles in a standard installation are expected to generate over 60% of the hot water requirements of the three-bedroom homes while the C21e tiles require just 8 m2 per kWp to generate 850kWh of electricity per year. It is expected that each house will generate 2,500kWh of electricity per year, equating to a saving of 1.5 tonnes of CO2. Meanwhile, the excess electricity generated is not wasted, as it is simply exported to the national grid, which pays a fee back to the householder – making the savings twofold.
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