Prosolar installs 276 Panel Solar PV System at Sun Life Ireland

Solar PV system cuts electricity costs at Waterford Office

Prosolar recently successfully completed the supply, installation and commissioning of a 276 panel solar PV system for Sun Life Ireland‘s offices on the Cork Road in Waterford City.

The Sun Life office, in the IDA Industrial Park at Cork Road Waterford, incorporates sustainable building features such as furniture made from recycled materials, energy-efficient LED lights, and electric vehicle charging stations for employees.  The solar PV system is designed to provide 15-20 percent of their electricity requirements. 

The installed solar PV system is expected to save 31,500 kilograms of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere every year & generate 2.2 million units of electricity over the next 25 years (the expected design life of the system).

We can solve problems

A large roof area was available with trapezoidal metal (box) cladding.  This roof had 4 East-West-sloping roof sections inside of a parapet wall.  The roofs had an approximate slope of 8 degrees. Because of the proximity of Waterford Airport, it was necessary to provide a Glint & Glare analysis as part of the planning application process – this process was managed by Prosolar.

Looking for technical project data? Keep reading…

The panels were mounted on the K2 Systems Minirail system, which is specially designed for mounting PV panels on trapezoidal metal cladding.  With each panel having a rated power of 455 Wp (watts-peak), this gave a total DC capacity of 116 kWp (kilowatts-peak). The 28 blocks of panels panels were arranged in 16 DC strings, carried on cable tray from the locations of the panels on the roof to a “swan-neck”, which enabled a watertight cable entry to the plant room located beneath.

Roof installation of the solar panels and containment for the solar cables took place over the space of 8 days. Usage of a crane was required on site to lift the solar panels to the roof.

Internally, nearby the point of cable entry, four Firefighter’s Safety Switches were installed to ensure that the power from the panels is automatically interrupted if the building loses grid power. These switches give firefighters the peace of mind that there is no potentially dangerous DC electricity flowing within the building when they have switched off power to the building in the event of a fire.

A 100kW Huawei inverter was fitted to transform the DC power produced by the solar panels to three-phase AC.  The inverter also ensures that the AC voltage produced is kept in sync with the grid for both voltage and frequency.

This type of installation is known as a small-scale generation system.  No export of power to the grid is permitted. An electricity consumption monitoring system was installed alongside functionality to reduce electricity generation to match consumption at times when the building is consuming less power (e.g., at weekends).

As well as this, ESB networks require that a special protective device known as a G10 relay is fitted.  This protective device automatically disconnects the PV inverter from the grid in the event of mains failure and supervises the quality of the connection.

The installation was completed in June 2022, with ESB Networks witness testing occurring in the following months.

Performance

The system performance is monitored, and data is logged continuously. The installation generated 36,700 kWh (36.7 MWh) of electricity in the 3 months from 01/04/2023 until the end of June 2023 and is on-track to pay back the cost of the investment in the Solar PV system within 3.5 years.

Do you have a similar project?

Prosolar can provide system modelling, design, and installation services. If you are interested in discussing a project, please make an enquiry on our website, and our engineers would be delighted to assist you.