Ellerton,
Yorkshire
Agricultural Supplies Ltd runs a busy site in Ellerton, in the Yorkshire countryside. When they put up new sheds, they wanted the roofs to work as hard as the business does. They asked us to turn the trapezoidal roof sheeting into a solar array that would cut their electricity bills and make use of all that roof space.
The sheds had good roofs, but the site's electrics took more thought. The site is on a single-phase supply, so we had to do meter-side work to make sure the solar could feed the whole site and not just one building. A system this size also needed G99 approval from the network operator before we could connect it.
There was a practical problem inside the shed too. It's a working space with plenty of sawdust in the air, and that's bad news for electronics. We had to find a home for the inverters that kept them clean, cool and easy to reach for servicing.
We fitted a 19.8 kWp array of 36 × JA Solar 550 W panels (JAM72S30-550/MR) straight onto the trapezoidal shed roof. These large-format panels mean fewer fixings and less mounting rail for each watt, which keeps costs down on a big agricultural roof.
The power is handled by two Solis 8 kW single-phase inverters. Solis inverters are simple and very reliable, which suits a farm setting. We sited them away from the consumer unit to keep sawdust out, and we fitted a new consumer unit in the shed to tidy up the distribution. This system doesn't have a battery. The panels feed the site directly, and any surplus is exported.
At quote stage, we estimated the array would generate about 14,546 kWh a year, with an estimated payback of 3 years 2 months. These are design estimates, not metered results. Real generation will depend on the weather and on how much power the site uses during the day.
On a site like this, most of the daytime load is met by the roof, and that's where farm and agricultural solar pays back fastest. The sheds were going up anyway, so the roof space came at no extra cost.
As a commercial install, the system comes with our 24-month workmanship warranty, on top of the manufacturers' product warranties.
Find out more on our farm solar panels page, see how we approach agricultural commercial solar, or read about solar on agricultural sheds.
Ready to put your shed roof to work? Get in touch for a free, no-obligation site survey and quote.
The largest module at JA's disposal comes with an impressive 25 year performance guarantee and the durability to match. Affixed to the trapezoidal roof, the large profile of the 550 W panel allowed for savings on mounting materials and an attractively small footprint per watt.
