Case Study: 30 Megawatts of Solar PV
Company B is not a business you would immediately associate with solar energy although they are a large energy user. Unlike Company A in a previous case study, Company B has no prior experience of deploying solar PV.
The company had been planning a series of projects for some time, and there was a dedicated team at their headquarters to bring these projects to completion.
By our estimate the company was planning somewhere in the region of 30 Megawatts of solar photovoltaics across a number of different sites.
Their staff simply could not see this, as they were processing each site individually, with each location installing a small portion of the 30 MW, and there was no in-house person with responsibility for technical due diligence.
Our team saw the situation from a slightly different view point.
A different point of view
Company B has an in-house facilities team.
If any of their sites needs a new door fitted, or a new gate fitted, or some electrical work like an outside light replaced, the company has a team in place to manage all of these activities across all of their locations.
It probably made sense to management to implement their solar PV strategy in the same way as they manage every kind of property maintenance and development issue and to use the same team without any additional support.
Common sense would tell us that these are significantly different projects, and while your team may be the best door-hangers in Ireland, they don’t have any technical expertise whatsoever in solar energy.
All of the technical competence was outsourced to the supplier, which is a poor choice.
Professional Approach
We imagine that an F1 racing team, approaching the upcoming season without any mechanics on staff would probably cause a few ripples with the sponsors.
Likewise, a professional rugby team, planning to win the cup without any out-halfs in the squad would certainly raise an eyebrow among the pundits.
It’s just as well that Company B is free to carry on their business as they please, without any oversight.
However, for the benefit of our clients, we will place the scale of their project in context.
Company B is installing a distributed solar array with a peak power in the region of 30 MWp. Taken collectively this would currently be the third- or fourth-largest solar array in the country.
Had this project been presented to the planning department as a whole, there would have been a team of highly specialised engineers, planners, project-managers, and consultants engaged to ensure the project met with success.
There’s a lot of technical information to be processed.
Each site will have it’s own particular set of challenges.
Likewise the overall budget of €20 to €30 million, invested in a single project, would have produced significantly better due diligence from Company B.
Aim for Better Outcomes
We need to be aiming for better outcomes in solar photovoltaics.
Our goal in these case-studies is to encourage a higher level of technical competence, and a higher level of due diligence for companies deploying solar PV at this time.
You are spending a lot of money.
While we cannot predict the specific outcome for Company B at this stage of the project, we can provide an inference from our experience, and knowledge of previous projects carried out by the supplier.
Potential Upside
Let’s say for example, that aside from the year-to-year variability, overall the project loses an additional 10% production across each of it’s sites due to poor knowledge, poor planning or poor implementation.
A 10% loss on a 30 MWp solar array, over the course of a year, could amount to 2.9 million kilowatthours, which is a significant amount of electricity required to be generated from other sources. The lost 2.9 million kWh needs to be generated either from the grid, or from additional sources within the company. This 2.9 million kWh certainly has the potential to cost Company B a significant sum of money each year going forward, eventually approaching the level of their initial investment.
A 10% loss on a 30 MWp solar array, over the course of a year, could amount to 2.9 million lost kilowatthours …
Ibid.
When the potential losses are considered, it put’s in perspective the benefits of employing an engineer for your project.
An increased level of technical evaluation across the project, will certainly improve your outcome and could have saved significant amounts of money for Company B.
Our team want you to have better outcomes in solar.
Contact Us if you want to achieve a better outcome for your project.
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