Farditch Farm Holiday Park Buxton
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Over the past few years, the hospitality sector has experienced substantial challenges, from Covid-19 bringing some long-term closures and loss of revenue, rising costs associated with Brexit and supply chains, and increased energy costs.
It’s been a challenge which, unfortunately, many businesses within and associated with the hospitality sector simply haven’t managed to survive.
Farditch Farm Holiday Park, located in Buxton, in the beautiful Peak District, is a very popular visitor location, with a beautiful landscape surrounding the accommodation. The holiday park provides accommodation across three cottages, eleven fully serviced hardstanding pitches and three small non-electrical pitches for small motorhomes. Additionally, there is also a barn conversion, providing 6 luxury cottages sleeping up to 34, along with 4 smaller cottages that sleep 22.
Like many in the hospitality sector, the site’s impact challenge was increasing energy prices. As a forward-thinking business, the Farditch Farm Holiday Park owners had already installed several large Photovoltaic arrays on the roof space available. Now, energy storage was at the forefront of their minds as an investment to reduce the site’s significant energy bills.
They contacted AlphaESS UK to assist.
CONSULTANCY
Like all initial enquiries we receive, our first steps are to conduct assessments to determine system requirements, capacity scale and customer cost savings.
After initial feasibility and survey reports, we agreed with the owners that two AlphaESS T30 systems to enable adequate storage of any PV, the electricity produced by Photovoltaic panels, would be an effective way forward for the site’s energy supply. The systems would also enhance the customer experience when visiting the site and be a sustainable approach to energy independence and energy costs for the owners.
SOLUTION
Energy storage capacity was the critical element for the project, and the initial installation consisted of 5 X 5.7 kWh (9M48112-3) batteries, providing 28.5 kWh of storage capacity.
Additionally, the site owner arranged for a cheaper night tariff over the following months, enabling the charging of the batteries from the grid to cover the morning energy needs of the holiday cottages and campsite before the PV was outputting to a sufficient level to cover the load, commonly known as energy load shifting. As a result, the system owner requested an upgrade to each system’s capacity from 5 x 5.7 kWh batteries to 12x 5.7 kWh batteries.
A further visit by us has recently taken place to install these batteries giving each system the new capacity of 68.4 kWh of storage, thus further reducing the impact of spiralling energy costs.
The approach by the site owners is one which many businesses are now exploring to safeguard existence.
Renewable energy technologies and solutions for commercial businesses, can often be complex, however, at AlphaESS UK we ensure our customers have correct analysis and data to make informed decisions, which are best for them. With Farditch Farm Holiday Park owners, we communicated all and best scenarios and options, delivering a sustainable and cost-efficient system for their energy future.
Farditch Farm Holiday Park Buxton
Working with our partners at Immersa we developed the solution to meet the customers expanded requirements. It demonstrated the flexibility of the AlphaESS products and how they can be adapted in situations like the one at Farditch Farm Holiday Park.
Mark Hale
Managing Director, AlphaESS UK