Fruit supplier Berry Gardens has installed almost 1 MW of solar panels on the roof of its new office and packhouse facilities at Linton near Maidstone in Kent.
The 993.85 kW array was developed by Edward Energy and installed by BeBa Energy UK. It differs from most other rooftop solar installations in that the panels can operate independently, rather than being connected in series. This means that faulty or dirty panels do not reduce the performance of an entire section, something that the developers claim should provide a 6.6 per cent boost in performance compared to a conventional layout.
“We decided to install an optimised system at Berry Gardens because there are plans to install a modern building monitoring system at the site that will allow the company to make use of the additional data,” said Edward Energy Director, Shaun Beattie. “The installation is also future-proofed, because as energy storage comes online in the next few years, Berry Gardens will have the right level of historical data to allow it to make efficient use of new battery technology.”
Edward Energy also recently completed a 1.1 MW solar array for Kent fruit suppliers Mansfields.