Commercial Solar – Portishead
The Project
In 2023 we were approached by a local IT solutions company to design and install a Solar PV and battery storage solution to reduce the running costs of their offices as well as back up critical circuits within the building to prevent the loss of data in the event of a power outage.
The office building in Portishead benefits from a large roof with Northern, Eastern and Western aspects so would benefit from a large amount of panels and a long period of production owing to the East and West aspects. There was also a large storage area for electrical equipment, batteries and inverter to be installed along with the 3 phase supply to the building.
With several EVs in their fleet the customer was keen to take advantage of smart charging from excess solar production.
The Solution
Our solution was to maximise the production on the roof, this would allow for the solar production to cover the loads in the office as well as keep the battery charged and then create a decent amount of export for which the company could be paid.
On top of a 3 phase solar system we included a Tesla Powerwall 2 into the design, this, along with the Tesla Gateway, would allow us to back up one of the phases to the office and ensure critical circuits were kept live during a power cut. The flexibility with the Tesla Gateway means that further batteries can be installed on the other phases to back up more circuits and with a charge and discharge rate of 5kW almost all loads in the office could be taken care of by the battery.
The final part of our proposal was to install car chargers for the companies EV fleet, to be installed remotely from the building on a pedestal close to the offices parking bays.
The Installation
Completed over 2 weeks in 2024, with 50 solar modules on the 3 aspects, complete with bird guard to prevent future nesting issues.
The inverter and Powerwall were installed in the offices electrical cupboard allowing for ease of connection to the 3 phase supply to the property with off grid functions tested and all safety equipment tested.
The car charger were installed on a pedestal and set up to allow charing from the excess solar, each charger is capable of adding around 50 miles and hour to an EV and this can all come from the solar or grid or a combination of the 2.
The Results
As the installation is relatively new result so far show that the peak production will be 20kW, with an estimated annual production of 14,065kWh which, along with the Tesla Powerwall means the office will be around 70% self sufficient.
More importantly is the Tesla Powerwall’s capability to support critical circuits in the event of a power cut, allowing our customer to ensure their clients information and data is kept safe and secure.