Bath Ales has just completed the installation of a £150,000 state-of-the-art solar array on the roof of its brewhouse, the Hare Brewery, in Warmley, near Bath.
Piers Thompson and Scott Parsons with the new solar array
The initiative is part of St Austell Brewery’s ongoing commitment to green brewing and sustainability.
As part of the new array created by Cornish-based ZLC Energy Limited, also responsible for the solar arrays at St Austell Brewery’s Head Office and Cornwall Distribution Centre in St Columb, 892 solar panels were installed, each producing 280W of power and contributing to an overall output of 250kW.
After two weeks of final testing, the array has gone live ahead of schedule, and features state of the art solar edge technology.
Each panel comes complete with its own micro inverter to ensure independent operation, helping to minimise shading issues and ensuring continued functionality if single panels experience faults.
A full monitoring and fault-finding system will ensure quick detection and fix capability for any problems within the system, which is designed to make the company a CO2 saving of over 128,000kg per year at the site in Warmley, while generating 226,500 kW hours across the year.
Inspecting the new system during the testing phase, St Austell Brewery and Bath Ales’ Director of External Relations and head of Corporate Social Responsibility, Piers Thompson said: “As soon as we gained planning approval to create Hare Brewery in Warmley, our intention for phase 2 was to get the solar array up and running as quickly as possible.
“ZLC have done an amazing job completing ahead of schedule and while £150k is a big sum to put up front, the technology is so advanced that we’re looking at making an estimated annual saving of over £30k on our annual power bills making a good return on investment and importantly reducing our carbon footprint.”
With the new solar array now up and running, the Hare Brewery looks set to be one of the greenest brewing sites in the UK.
