pv

Wolseley UK installs huge solar array on distribution centre roof

Eight thousand solar panels have been installed on the roof of Wolseley UK’s National Distribution Centre (NDC) in Leamington Spa, capable of generating enough electricity to power around 450 homes a year
Wolseley UK installs huge solar array on distribution centre roof

Wolseley UK is part of the global plumbing and heating products company Wolseley PLC and is also a supplier of construction materials. It has launched a commitment to green energy solutions of which the new solar array is part.

The roof of the company’s UK National Distribution Centre, which at 13,113m² is around the size of two football pitches, has now been covered in 8020 PV panels, along with 24 inverters, at Wolseley UK’s head office site. The installation took 6 months to complete and is set to generate 2MW of electricity per year. This means that at full capacity the system will completely power the distribution centre while also creating a 10 percent power surplus and displacing 1280 tonnes of carbon per year. The array will additionally earn the company a projected £6.5 million income over 20 years through the government’s Feed In Tariff (FIT) for commercial buildings with a payback period of 6.8 years.  

“As a business, we are committed to sustainable building” said Steve Ashmore, Wolseley UK’s Managing Director. “We opened the UK’s first commercial showcase for sustainable building products and construction methods, our Sustainable Building Center, in 2008. And we are continuing to lead the way by investing in the technology that we advocate. We are already seeing some fantastic environmental and cost savings from our PV installation and I hope that our success will inspire our customers into adopting green energy solutions, due to the significant results they can achieve.”

The system will help to showcase some of the renewable energy products that Wolseley UK supplies to its customers via its Plumb and Parts Centre.

The installation also boasts two unique innovations to maximise energy efficiency and site safety. Exhaust air from the inverters is channelled into the building’s heating systems, potentially generating around 80kW of additional heat. A safety feature has also been built in which means panels will disconnect if the fire alarm is activated, due to the automated DC breakers situated within the string fuse boxes, which are connected to the building’s fire control system. 

For additional information:

Wolseley UK

Baterías con premio en la gran feria europea del almacenamiento de energía
El jurado de la feria ees (la gran feria europea de las baterías y los sistemas acumuladores de energía) ya ha seleccionado los productos y soluciones innovadoras que aspiran, como finalistas, al gran premio ees 2021. Independientemente de cuál o cuáles sean las candidaturas ganadoras, la sola inclusión en este exquisito grupo VIP constituye todo un éxito para las empresas. A continuación, los diez finalistas 2021 de los ees Award (ees es una de las cuatro ferias que integran el gran evento anual europeo del sector de la energía, The smarter E).