In April 2023, Harvest Green Developments partnered with Energy Oasis to deliver commercial PV systems at four sites for West Country Parks, a family holiday park located within the beautiful Mendip Hills in Somerset. Using available roof space across the Riverside, Rose Farm, Riverside, and Edithmead Holiday Parks, we designed suitable solar arrays that would maximise each site’s renewable energy potential.
Rose Farm Holiday Park, located in Berrow, is an adult only caravan park with an onsite clubhouse that offers the perfect place to enjoy refreshments and delicious homecooked meals. By covering the rooftop of the clubhouse with high-quality solar panels that are capable of generating 425 watts each, it means that a total of 25.075kW of clean electricity can be produced to power the clubhouse’s kitchen and other facilities. As of August 2024, this modest solar array has totalled an impressive 36.45MWh of free electricity that has substantially helped to reduce not only the holiday park’s energy bills, but also their carbon emissions by 7,048.55 kg, which equates to the same saving as planting 426 new trees.
Riverside Holiday Village is located close to Weston-Super-Mare in Somerset and offers lots of exciting activities for all the family to enjoy. With a combination of camping sites, caravan plots, and luxury holiday lodges, this is one of West Country Parks’ busier parks, and as such, it has a big electricity demand to ensure that all the fantastic facilities it offers are kept running during the peak summer months. We installed a solar array consisting of 345 Tier 1 solar panels across the rooftop of the main building, achieving a total DC size of 144.90kW. During its lifetime, the solar PV system has generated over 240.74MWh in renewable energy (as of August 2024) that has been consumed by the facility and reduced carbon emissions by 46,554.31 kg, which is the same as planting over 2,800 new trees.
The third of the commercial PV systems to be installed at West Country Parks, was across the rooftops of the clubhouse and bar at Fairways Holiday Park, a picturesque family-friendly caravan park, which overlooks the Somerset Levels and the Quantock Hills. With a total DC size of 47.60kW, the solar array has to date (August 2024) generated 59.22MWh of free electricity, which has been powering the clubhouse and bar for just over a year now. This amount of green energy has successfully managed to offset the holiday park’s carbon emissions by more than 11,451.97 kg. It would take 692 new trees to be planted to offset the same amount of carbon.
Edithmead Leisure & Park Homes, another of West Country Parks’ popular sites for the over 50’s located close to Burnham-on-Sea, also had solar panels installed across the rooftops of the main office and Windmill Bar & Bistro. As of August 2024, the 76.25kW sized solar PV system has produced 87.01MWh of clean electricity and significantly helped to reduce the site’s carbon footprint by saving over 16,800kg of carbon emissions or the same as planting over 1,000 new trees.
Overall across the four sites, West Country Parks have achieved a remarkable saving of over 81,800kg carbon emissions in just over a year, through their collective commercial PV systems that total 217.575kW, which is a true testament to their commitment to reducing their carbon footprint and adopting as many environmentally-friendly practices as possible.
Group Manager, David Tattersall, said:
“We are delighted to partner with Energy Oasis. As our business is reliant on visitors coming to enjoy the stunning Somerset countryside, we feel that it is our responsibility to do everything that we can to help repair the planet and reduce our carbon footprint.”
Key Facts
The commercial PV systems across all four sites use Tier 1 solar panels supplied by Trina Solar, together with the latest module-level optimisation technology from SolarEdge inverters, which allows us to remotely monitor the performance of each individual solar panel. Additional metering was installed to enable the collection of clearer data on how much energy is being generated, consumed, and imported and exported via the grid.
Your business can reduce their carbon emissions with commercial PV systems too
Renewable energy is a fantastic way for holiday parks and other leisure, hospitality, and retail businesses to vastly reduce their carbon emissions quickly and effectively. With lucrative payback periods on investments, commercial PV systems can offer substantial savings for the long-term.
Harvest Green Developments look forward to supporting your business on your journey towards net zero, cheap energy and self-sufficiency. Check out our guide on how we build renewable energy systems here.
