Renewable Energy

Woodhill Farm – Case Study
Guest article written by RenewEV

Energy Monitoring
RenewEV were approached by Woodhill Farm to help reduce energy bills for their robotic dairy parlour.

Like many farm businesses, using monthly bills doesn’t give enough detail to work out the pattern of demand, so the first step was to create some data to understand the detailed energy demand with an energy monitoring study. The monitoring and subsequent site survey found that there was a reasonable load throughout the day including three periods of high consumption which were identified as being part of the sterilization/heating process.


RenewEV made a number of immediate recommendations relating to load shifting for some of the systems in place to run on the cheaper night-time tariff. We then identified that for Woodhill Farm that an on-site solar and battery would be worth investigating further with a feasibility study.



Solar PV & Battery Feasibility Study
After assessing the local grid constraints, RenewEV completed a locational assessment and optimum roof and site placement for the solar PV array and battery.

A number of scenarios were then generated, by analyzing the location data, and recommendations were given for the optimal system with and without a battery. The recommendation included assumptions of tariff predictions as well as an estimate of reasonable export income and balance between good use of the array throughout the seasons.

The feasibility brief was to provide a system that would deliver maximum savings whilst reducing capital risk from oversizing the array. The feasibility study also provided the client with an estimate of annual carbon savings and outline carbon payback periods for an honest assessment of the overall carbon benefit of the project.

After the initial report had been completed, the UK experienced a significant increase in electricity prices on the back of the war in Ukraine and RenewEV were asked to review the recommended system to better account for the newly predicted tariff rates, without overestimating the long-term viability of the electricity tariff prices to mitigate risk.

Installer Procurement
Like many rural businesses Woodhill Farm has a very busy working week and is focused on running a successful dairy business. Due to farming workload coupled with the difficulty in obtaining quotes from a very busy solar marketplace, RenewEV were tasked with going to market to obtain quotes and run a tender process from experienced solar installers.

The outcome was a report outlining the pricing, specification, terms and due diligence which produced a recommendation for Woodhill Farm to proceed to placing an order.

Project Management
Following order placement, RenewEV were asked to project manage the design and installation process involving liaison with the contractor to agree terms and ensure the project design met the specification.

The role continued to include pre-construction meeting attendance, review of pre-construction health and safety documentation and then liaison with the installer to ensure the site was set out as planned for installation.

During the installation process site visits were made to ensure the design was being followed and the contractor was applying all process and specification as set out pre-construction. This ranged from assessing safety arrangements to inspection of work in progress from quality and time management perspectives.

Once completed RenewEV provided a quality inspection and review of handover documentation to ensure the array was functional and set up to provide minimal intervention from the client for the life of the system.

With the continued rising cost of energy and the drive to become carbon neutral, farms are now more than ever under pressure to manage and deliver on both sides.

If you would like more information regarding renewable energy, please contact Louise on 07943 684215 or e-mail louise@dblbuyinggroup.co.uk