Initial Situation

Albert Darnell Ltd., a family owned business established in 1982 in Grimsby, processes and packs premium white fish and salmon for the UK market. The business has always tried to keep in the forefront of the industry by having a modern facility with the latest fish processing equipment and retail packing systems and by investing in their people. They also take environmental responsibilities seriously and therefore uphold sustainable seafood procurement principles and eco-friendly business practices.

At their business location in Grimsby, the firm decided to further their environmental goals by investing in renewable energy. A solar PV installation would help the company provide long-term environmental benefits, massive energy savings, but income as well. Albert Darnell Ltd. selected Flixborough Eco Technologies for the design, supply and install of their new PV system.

Project Realisation

The fish processing operation in Grimsby demands the use of a lot of power and the costs per year for energy are very high. After careful planning, the PV system designer determined that with a 185 kWp rooftop solar system enough solar energy could be generated to power all the processing operations and even have excess power to sell back to the national grid.
The processing plant building featuring a hip roof with multiple roof angles required special planning. Not all of the required 250W solar modules could fit on one roof surface alone. The system designer determined the best configuration was to install a 135 kWp array on a southeast facing roof and a second 50 kWp array on a southwest facing roof. A total of 740 solar panels were employed in the rooftop plant.

Flixborough Eco Technologies selected Delta RPI inverters for the system that were purchased from the distributor RESS UK. The high-end Delta inverters with a maximum efficiency up to 97.5% and support for asymmetrical loading ensure maximum yield for rooftop plants that have arrays on multiple roof surfaces. The reliable transformerless inverters also feature a rugged cast aluminum chassis and IP65 waterspray-proof rating, fitting for a processing plant environment. In addition, the installer made their selection on a good price point, outstanding performance, and the solid reputation of Delta Electronics Inc., in the power electronics business for over 40 years.

Installation of 3 x Delta RPI M50A and 1 x Delta RPI M20A solar inverters were an important step in the PV plant construction that began on April 12th, 2015. Only a little over two weeks were needed for the complete installation and commissioning of the PV plant. System commissioning took place on April 28, 2015. Besides supplying the RPI inverters, Delta also supplied the system monitoring for the plant using Delta’s own monitoring system, SOLIVIA Monitor.

Conclusion

The new solar PV system is now in operation and expected to generate over 153.18 MWh of electricity per year. According to a recent independent system audit, the results show that the Delta based system has a 10% better yield when compared against a wide spectrum of monitored systems using other brands of inverters. Flixborough Eco Technologies has stated that the project is expected to produce a 22% return on investment, and pay itself off in approximately 6.2 years as well as reduce the impact of rising electricity prices and grid dependency.

Reduced carbon emissions, stable electricity supply at reduced prices, locally produced energy to decrease demand on the grid are just a few of the positive results that the business can count on in the future with their new PV system. Delta is proud to work together with its partners with the goal of creating a cleaner, greener future. As demonstrated by Albert Darnell Ltd., being more green proves to be good for British business and for the environment.