Mawley Town Farm, Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire
Client – Mawley Milk
Technology: Solar PV
Installation Size: 100kWp
Installation Completed: 21/07/2011
Use of power: Dairy Farm – Refrigeration, Milk cooling, Water heating and Robotic milkers.
Mawley Milk use 240,000 units per annum split 50:50 day and night. They were looking at wind to generate power for them but when the opportunity arose to install solar before the 1st August 2011 deadline, they took it. They are in the last stages of obtaining planning consent for a 50kWp wind turbine to supplement the solar as they use a lot of power at night and the wind turbine should cover this.
In the nine months since installation the array has so far generated 54,164 units and is on target to comfortably exceed the projected generation of 82,500 units because during cloudy April 2012 it was currently producing 350 units per day.
Previously the farm was using 313 daytime units per day and this is now down to 129 in the summer and 250 in winter, a saving of £20 a day (summer) and about £6.50 (winter). Therefore in addition to the FiT payments totalling £28,500 in year one, the farm saves just under £5,000 pa in power.
Adrian Robinson, owner of Mawley Milk comments “We are happy customers; the output so far is good and I do expect to exceed the projected figure by the end of our first year. We are experiencing good savings and we could do even better if we use our power differently”.
