Articles From July 2014

PV at Old Walls

PV

Posted in General on Thursday 31st July 2014 at 11:01am

As with all farming and renewable energy systems we are very reliant on what nature throws our way. We have always been strong advocates of run of the river hydro power schemes as its production parallels the human need for energy. Think about when you use most energy in your homes – the winter, with the heating on, hot meals and soaks in a hot bath on cold winter days. Contrast that with the summer when the heating is off and windows open, salads or BBQs for meals and cool showers at the end of the day. Our hydro scheme produces the most power in the winter and the least in the summer due to the rivers running high in winter and low in summer following the natural rainfall pattern. To complement this we have added a 10kW PV system to our renewable energy range by installing 40 PV panels on our farm buildings. It, in contrast to the hydro production, produces most electricity during the summer months from sunshine thereby levelling out our production low spot in the summer. This is important for us as the summer is the time when we do our maintenance on the leat, intake tank, spillway and forebay tank which necessitates powering down the hydro turbines but with the new PV we can still be self sufficient in electricity.