Our projects

Thorn Turn, England

Site presentation

This recycling centre in the county of Bedfordshire in England wished to cover its energy needs with locally generated renewable energy.

Initially, conventional photovoltaic modules were installed on the roof of its building. However, these were of modest size because the space available on the roof was limited and because the design of the building did not allow excessive extra weight to be added.

It was therefore quite natural for the Centre to identify another available surface on which to install a second photovoltaic system: its car park. The Centre wished to be able to develop this space in the future for its operations, so it did not opt for a system involving a solar canopy, which would have forced it to leave its site untouched for several years. Accordingly it chose to install a Wattway photovoltaic plant on the traffic aisles of its car park.

How the system works

The 216 m² Wattway photovoltaic power plant consists of photovoltaic modules for traffic-bearing surfaces, installed on the car park’s traffic aisles. Its rated power output is 21 kWp. The ground-mounted modules produce solar energy that is converted into electricity and fed directly into the main building’s low-voltage switchboard for use by the building itself.

Why did the Centre choose Wattway?

Decisive factors in the Centre’s choice of Wattway technology included the possibility of generating more renewable energy for its own needs and making additional use of the site of its car park, but without preventing further development of the operation of its car park over the long term, which would have been the case with a solar canopy.