Small tweaks could revolutionise your solar
Thousands of pounds of energy are being lost by Solar PV owners every month without them even knowing.
This was illustrated recently as HIT Energy Services engineers visited a site, owned by one of the biggest onion sellers in east England, that was underperforming by a massive 40%.
After getting it back to where it should be, we were then able to increase the capacity by 65% – giving it a huge boost in productivity.
Why do Solar PV systems underperform?
There are many reasons why sites such as these are not performing as they should, and the worst thing of all is that quite often, owners simply don’t realise.
Some were simply not installed properly and have never performed to their potential.
Others have aged or been degraded by the weather, and while they may have once produced large volumes of energy, their output has dropped over time.
The main problem Solar PV owners face is knowing and understanding what makes their investments tick, and how they can always perform at their best.
But they are highly technical pieces of technology.
In the past, owners had nobody to turn to – but our engineers speak the language of solar like nobody else.
How do you fix Solar PV issues?
We have a number of ways to remedy these issues, and the first step is to visit the site and chat to the owner.
The first thing we can go is give the system a health check – which means we can test how much power each panel is producing compared to the amount it should be producing.
It’s pretty common that some will only be producing at 90% or 80% of their potential at best, while in some cases it will be as low as 40% or 30%.
Obviously, as they are still producing, system owners generally don’t even know there’s a problem, but are losing out to the tune of hundreds and sometimes thousands of pounds in lost generation.
The next step our team can take is to repower the system – re-energise it and get it producing to 100% of its potential again.
To make sure you never lose any money again, we are then able to fit the system with our industry-leading, multi award-winning monitoring technology, the HIT Energy Guard.
This keeps tabs on things 24/7.
It means if any panel in the system drop to 90% or 80% even for a short time, we are alerted and can fix it immediately.
How can I increase my Solar PV capacity?
In some cases, we are not only able to get the system producing at the rate it was when it was brand new, but we are also able to increase its capacity, sometimes significantly.
With the company in the east of England, we ran tests and found that it was only producing just over half as much power as it should be – 40% behind the levels it could have achieved.
We looked at a range of options to make the site more efficient, and decided to add 35% more panels.
These newer panels are far more efficient and increased the capacity by 65%, with the extra generation meaning the outlay for them will be paid back in just 2.3 years.
Simon from HIT Energy Services said:
“There are probably hundreds or even thousands of Solar PV owners around the UK losing money on their investment without even knowing.
“In this case, it was our HIT Energy Guard – our monitoring technology that keeps an eye on systems 24/7 – that picked up it was underperforming.
“This is a great insurance policy for so many owners, and proves that our oversight, followed by some tweaks could make your solar far more lucrative.”
