Saturday, December 5, 2015

Woodbridge-based East Green Energy completes floating solar panel project

Article published in www.eadt.co.uk, on december 3rd, 2015


A Suffolk-based renewable energy company has completed its first installation of floating solar panels, only the second of its kind in the UK.
East Green Energy
East Green Energy, based at Woodbridge, has installed a 50kilowatt array of panels on a reservoir on the Raveningham Hall Estate in Norfolk.

Linda Grave, managing director at East Green Energy, which supplies biomass systems as well as solar photo voltaic panels, said the idea behind the concept of floatinig panels was to make use of otherwise “dead” space on the surface of farm reservoirs.
The panels would generate the power required to drive irrigation pumps – the demand for which happily coincides usually with sunny weather when the panels are producing the most energy – with any surplus power being fed into the grid.
Other advantages were that the cooling effect of the water improved the efficiency of the panels in converting light into energy and that the presence of the panels helped to limit both evaporation and the development of toxic algae.
The size of installations took into account the potential for the water level to fall, so that wildlife would always have access the water, she added.
Although the agriculture sector is a major market for East Green Energy, which is a member of the Archant Green 100, the company also supplies a mix of domestic and commercial clients.