The Rotherwas Service Station selling BP petrol and diesel does a roaring trade providing “fuel” for workers and their vehicles during the working day. The owner, Mohammed Ahmed, decided to expand in 2017 with a new larger building providing more than just a convenience store. There’s hot, freshly baked food for the hungry workers of Skylon Park, Hereford Enterprise Zone with an emphasis on supporting local food suppliers.

Mohammed wanted to offset the higher running costs by installing solar panels and generate their own electricity to power the new building, its fridges and ovens.

To capture as much of the energy from the sun as possible the main roof was orientated south and built at the optimal angle of 30°. “I got a couple of local companies to quote for the solar installation and Solarkinetics really stood out as the best option. Gordon Yule, who came out to do the site survey and design the system, was flexible and very customer focused, looking at how best to meet my requirements,” said Mohammed.

COVID lockdowns delayed Mohammed’s plans for the solar system but when the price of electricity started to skyrocket in 2022, the move to renewables took on a new impetus.

In total 108 solar panels were installed, covering the south facing main roof plus the forecourt canopy above the fuel pumps. “The installation team were professional, the lads were also quick, everything was installed in one week as planned,” said Mohammed.

“We plan installations so the level of disruption to the business is kept to a minimum,” said Gordon. “In this case, we were able to install solar panels on the forecourt canopy while still allowing people to carry on using the fuel pumps.”

Each panel is 375W so the total installation is 40kWp, forecast to produce 35,370kWh per year. “The system is due to break even in 3.5 years and from the performance over the past year, we’re certainly on course to achieve this,” commented Mohammed. “Electricity usage in the summer months was £5,000 per month, now it’s £2,500 per month.”

When the electricity contract at The Malvern came up for renewal in March 2022, the sudden shock of a major price increase led the management to look for an alternative supplier.

The Malvern is a Spa hotel with a private membership club of gym and restaurant. Their electricity bill was forecast to increase from £8,000 per month to £25,000 per month even when they shopped around.

“First of all, we looked at how savings could be made in our energy usage. Realising only limited savings were possible, we decided that an expansive flat roof would be ideal for solar,” said Lynsey Kettlewell, Managing Director at The Malvern.

At the time, Worcestershire County Council was offering a grant, the Low Carbon Opportunities Programme, contributing up to 40% towards the installation cost of Solar PV.

“Four companies tendered and each one assessed on price, customer reviews and whether they were local; out of the four, Solarkinetics was selected,” continued Lynsey. “Solarkinetics proved to be a great team to deal with – proactive and took the time to explain the process including how upfront approval with the DNO is required before going ahead.”

The solar installation comprised 349 x 405W Canadian Solar modules on the building’s flat roof, mounted using ballasted Van Der Valk frames, plus three Fronius inverters – 1 x Tauro 50kW inverter, 1 x Symo 27kW inverter and 1x Symo 20kW inverter.

In all the install took just over a week. “There was no disruption to the smooth running of the business which was a real positive.”

The Malvern with high electricity usage consumes all the energy the solar panels produce, even at weekends as it’s open 7 days a week. On a sunny day in early March, solar was contributing 32% to the power requirement. Taking into consideration the grant’s contribution, the system is forecast to pay-back in two and half years.

“Even after installation, Solarkinetics proved supportive, helping to answer questions from our insurers and taking the time to answer any queries we had with the set-up.”