DIY 15kw solar array on poultry house.

Thinking of installing a 15kw 3 phase solar system onto a 16000 bird multi tier free range layer house. Has anyone done similar. I’m in n Ireland so currently no other incentives other than using the electric myself.
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
What will the power be used for? I understand that free range sheds use relatively little energy , except if you have a grading line.
do not forget the rule of 75%
75% of your power will be produced in the months April - September
75% of the power will be produced in the hours 10 - 2
 

upnortheast

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Northumberland
Thinking of installing a 15kw 3 phase solar system onto a 16000 bird multi tier free range layer house. Has anyone done similar. I’m in n Ireland so currently no other incentives other than using the electric myself.
Unlikely to give you a return on your money without FIT
Lets say it would produce 13000 kw a year
Assume buying that leccy would be circa 16p so £2000 worth.
Guess install cost would be £12k ish.
But the problem is making use of all that power considering @Exfarmer 75% rule above
If you want to be sure read your leccy meter 3 times a day over a couple of weeks to get an idea how much you use during the day.
Think you will find you can not make use of a significant amount of the power you are generating.
& to answer your next question
Battery installation don`t stack up economically either
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
Used 35kw today from 7am to 9pm .
I have a 12kw in a different premises that done 75kwh ?
Can buy all I need for £9000
Be very wary of thinking you will regularly get figures like that. I have rarely read much over 5Kwh per KWp ( installed capacity ) per day in April and although the last few days have indeed been pushing up to 5.2 , your panels must be at a perfect pitch I guess.

My average out put is 3.79 KWh per KWp for per day April and my best ever performance came in May 2018 when I achieved an average of 5.19 KWh per KWp daily for the month peaking for one set at 7KWh on one day alone in June 2018.
However I do not monitor all panels for daily production
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
Our 50kw produced 800 kw last week. so adjust that to 30kw would be 68kw a day
around half of what you used yesterday
This is a far more realistic figure for expectations.
I can assure the OP that if you get around 15,000 units a year from a 15Kw set up you will be doing very well, and as I said before most of that will be between 10 and 2 on a summer's day
 

Fogg

Member
Livestock Farmer
I'm averaging just over 140,000kw per annum from a 150kw system, 5 yrs in.

That's factoring in a couple of silly things like me not noticing an inverter had tripped off for a couple of months last summer.

Some impressive sunshine harvesting going on, by the look of things, but this is less cloudy than your typical April, I guess.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.9%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 63 34.2%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.3%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.3%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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