Case Study // Project Overview
Tadcaster Grammar School
Founded in 1557 Tadcaster Grammar School in North Yorkshire is a large secondary school boasting 1,600 students from years 7 – 13. The school grounds have a range of extremely old buildings going back to the 1500s, to modern portacabins and steel roofed science and technology blocks.
Tadcaster is one of 11 schools (9 primary and 2 secondary) part of STAR Multi-Academy Trust (MAT). Although small in terms of the school's power usage, this system and project has created significant potential for future installations at other the other MAT schools and additional systems at Tadcaster, once the success of the Solar PV is demonstrated through the results.
Schools, Colleges and Universities are excellent clients for Solar PV systems. They all tend operate primarily during daylight hours, which aligns perfectly with peak Solar energy production hours. This means that they can directly consume a large portion, if not all, of the solar power generated, reducing reliance on the grid.
Challenges
With the school’s busy academic calendar and limited access during term time, the installation had a very short window for completion before students returned for the start of term. To meet this challenge, the team meticulously coordinated their schedule, working efficiently within the brief timeframe to avoid any disruption to the start of term. Our well-organized team and careful planning allowed us to complete the project on time without compromising quality.
To ensure student safety, we carefully designed a system with inverters placed in hard-to-reach areas, making them inaccessible to students. This required creative problem-solving, as the school’s layout offered limited options for secure placement. After thorough assessment, we successfully mounted the inverters in secure, elevated positions, ensuring both safety and optimal functionality.
KEY STATS
PV system size: 94.72kWp
Number of panels: 160
Annual kWh generation: 81.71MWh
