The largest Solar Photovoltaic installation on a school in the UK
Birchwood High School in Bishops Stortford is a 1,250 student secondary school with a ‘trailblazing’ curriculum (Ofsted 2006). It is not only leading the way with engaging and inspirational lessons it is at the forefront of renewable energy too!
Our Generation began working with Birchwood in Spring 2009. After surveying the school and advising on the most appropriate solution, Our Generation appointed Mark Group as its partner.
Mark Group worked with the school to provide guidance and advice to obtain planning permission and grant funding. Our Generation now provides a fully funded installation using the government's Feed in Tariffs.
Watch the short film below to find out how we helped Birchwood School
The Installation
The installation, in September 2009, consisted of 204 Sharp 180W photovoltaic modules, together with six inverters to convert the energy produced into useable electricity. The power provided by this array is approximately 32,000 kWh (units) of electricity per annum - the equivalent to that used by around ten 3 bedroom houses. The panels were installed on the sports hall but are linked in to contribute to the whole school’s energy requirements.
Mark Group’s project delivery experts worked with the school’s facilities management team ensuring that the school remained fully operational during installation.
Minimum disruption was achieved through a number of measures such as designing special scaffolding so that car parks were still operational, car park monitoring and parking advice to parents and creating on site welfare facilities to eliminate interaction between contractors and pupils.
Monitoring
Our Generation is working with Birchwood to also reduce their “brown” energy consumption by adding smart meters to all buildings within the school and linking them to the solar PV energy monitoring platform. This system allows students and the facilities management team to monitor both renewable energy and brown energy consumption.