Avisford Park Hotel has invested £300,000 in a solar and storage installation on its site, in response to rising energy prices and growing guest expectations for sustainability.
Novalux Solar designed, supplied and installed the system, which consists of 308 DAS Solar 590W N-Type Bifacial panels, ground-mounted on an unused tennis court, with a rated power of 163.24 kWp.
It also uses two Solis S6-EH3P50K-H-EU hybrid inverters and two Dyness BF100-C100 outdoor battery cabinets, which provide a storage capacity of 200 kWh.
The hotel’s peak electricity consumption times do not match the peak solar hours, so the integration of an energy storage system maximizes the self-consumption of electricity generated by the solar installation.
According to Managing Director of Crest Hotels Limited, which owns and operates the Avisford Park Hotel: “The hospitality industry is facing increasing pressure from rising energy costs and many other challenges, while guests rightly expect businesses to demonstrate a genuine commitment to sustainability.”
UK energy prices, known to be higher than the European average and heavily influenced by increases in global gas prices, are a strong motivation for companies to switch to renewable energy.
The £300,000 investment by Avisford Park Hotel will see it pay 5.88p per unit of electricity generated on site over the 25-year life of the solar plus storage installation.
Although the upfront costs are significant, the long-term security and lower costs are a major selling point.
What is less common at the moment is the sense that sustainability is a major driver for companies to install renewable energy generation. Politically, the Britain is seeing a shift away from the climate consensusAnd opposition parties criticize the government’s investments in the sustainable energy sector.
One area that will see continued interest from solar developers, regardless of Westminster’s stance, is undoubtedly in installations such as those at the Avisford Park Hotel, and other commercial and industrial applications.
