Courtown Adventure & Leisure Centre – Activ8 Solar Energies

System Statistics

56kWp

System Size

197

Solar Panels

197

Micro-Inverters

40,000+ kWh

Annual Output

In the latter part of 2015, Courtown Adventure & Leisure Centre in Co Wexford looked toward the energy efficient measures available to them in reducing their energy consumption and overall carbon footprint. Courtown Adventure & Leisure Centre is a charitable organisation with a voluntary board of directors who employ a team of professionals to manage the operations on their behalf.

Headed up by General Manager Margaret Quinn, a sub-committee at the Centre is charged with looking after energy and it was the forward thinking of this committee that has highlighted the growth of solar PV here in Ireland.

After identifying the benefits that solar PV could bring to the centre, they set about getting the funding for the project with the help of Wexford County Council. Carlow Kilkenny Energy Agency was appointed to project manage and set about upgrading existing systems and fittings to improve energy efficiency throughout the business. This was achieved through a number of different measures, including a large solar PV installation on the roof of the leisure centre itself by Activ8 Solar Energies.

“We have noticed reductions on the meter already and we can see that our bills have dropped greatly.“

“In the end, it was the perfect solution; we were looking for a low maintenance way to produce green energy and solar PV ticked all the boxes.“

Mateusz Slazyk
Assistant Manager
Courtown Adventure & Leisure Centre

The 197 solar PV panel installation in Courtown is an indication of where the future of energy is heading in Ireland. Solar panel installation continues to grow and this can act as a case in point of how commercially viable solar photovoltaic has become for Irish businesses.

Activ8 Energies was chosen to design and install the project and brought its extensive solar PV experience to the site. The company worked through the half hourly readings along with project managers CKEA (Carlow Kilkenny Energy Agency) to optimise the size and set up of this heavy consumer of electricity.

The centre itself had already taken numerous progressive steps to reduce its consumption over the past year, shaving its peak consumption from an average of 93kVA right down to 71kVA. In line with this great progress, the centre applied for an SEAI grant for the installation of a solar electric system and, with the help of CKEA, was successful in its bid.

An important aspect of the project was to install a low maintenance, high warranty solution. With this in mind Enphase micro inverter technology was installed and it was at the time of installation, the largest Enphase microinverter installation in Ireland.

With this 56 kWp solar pv system, Courtown will reduce their energy consumption by over 40,000kWhr’s on a yearly basis.

Saving Money At Their Leisure

Due to the utilisation of Enphase Micro Inverters on this job, this system is guaranteed to continue production of electricity for at least 20 years, which leaves the leisure centre with the peace of mind that they have locked in the cost of approx. 800,000kWhr’s.

"With solar pv becoming a larger part of the Irish lexicon, it really is great to see the SEAI supporting such a system and Wexford County Council helping a forward thinking business such as Courtown Adventure & Leisure Centre"

— Aidan Marron, General Manager, Activ8 Solar Energies