News
15 September 2011
Pick Everard taps into solar power for Grupotec on one of the UK’s largest PV installations
Pick Everard has completed work for Grupotec on a 1.6MW capacity project, one of the largest roof-mounted photovoltaic (PV) system installations in the UK, in Suffolk, connected before cuts in Feed-In-Tariffs for large PV systems are enforced.
Grupotec, a division of Spanish engineering consultancy Grupotec Solar and one of the major players in the Spanish photovoltaic sector, specialises in roof-mounted PV installations for industrial premises such as large warehouse buildings. The completion of this first large PV installation project follows collaboration between Grupotec Solar and Pick Everard. Installed on the roof of a Promenswarehouse in Beccles, around 7000 PV panels have been installed co-planar with the 6o-pitched roof. This PV plant is expected to produce around 1.500MW of electricity and almost all of the power generated will be used on-site.
Pick Everard provided electrical and structural engineering, project management and CDM-C input and co-ordination between the English and Spanish companies involved to ensure continuity of communications. Installation was undertaken by contractors J Tomlinson and Spanish PV-installation specialists Montur and Eleco with building control services provided by RBC.
Dr Jose Hernandez, Pick Everard Associate and Sustainability and Thermal Modelling Engineer commented: “We are also collaborating with Grupotec Solar on a number of potential projects and on high-profile buildings that we hope will come to fruition. Pick Everard is providing a range of UK-based environmental and planning consultancy, design, cost and BREEAM consultancy services that support Grupotec’s expansion in the UK market.”
Adrian Banks, Engineering Manager at Promens Packaging said, “Pick Everard played a pivotal role in enabling this project to be completed ahead of a schedule that was already extremely challenging. The control, project management and above all the health and safety management far exceeded our expectations. Promens incurred no negative impact on its usual business activities during the period of works and started utilising green energy from July. “
The development of a large-scale PV industry in the UK may be dampened by Department of Energy and Climate Change revisions to the Feed-In-Tariffs (FIT) programme which will see funds cut by 40%-70% for systems over 50kW. Jose Hernandez adds, “The changes to FIT may well change the scale of the projects we become involved in. The most likely impact will be increasing numbers of projects with up to 250 kW of PV panels."
Pick Everard’s first project with Grupotec was with its British waste division, Northampton-based Waste Recycling Group (WRG), on its Greengairs Landfill site in South Lanarkshire near Glasgow, the biggest landfill void in Europe. Owned by Spanish-based international firm Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC), WRG is bidding for a PFI contract to dispose of 60,000 tonnes of waste per year from West Lothian Council. The plan involves building a new recycling and composting facility and plant based on Mechanical and Biological Treatment (MBT) which uses a ball mill to shred waste followed by stages of mechanical separation to extract recyclable materials. Pick Everard’s environmental team has been involved in the first stage of the bid by carrying out a full carbon life-cycle analysis of the proposed waste disposal process, from initial transport to final fate of each waste stream. The analysis uses Environment Agency approved WRATE software to model carbon consequences, as well as other pollution including damage to rivers and groundwater.
