An innovative modern building designed to house a variety of new start-up companies has been equipped with roof-mounted Schueco high-performance photovoltaic modules in order to lower overall energy bills and achieve a significant reduction in carbon emissions.

Owned by the University of Lincoln and situated on the edge of its Brayford campus, Sparkhouse Studios Phase 2 follows on from Sparkhouse Studios Phase 1, which is already providing premises for a dozen new businesses, mostly in the media and communications industries.

The array of 32 180W Schueco PV modules was designed and installed by Schueco’s Installer Partner Freewatt Ltd, a Lincolnshire-based business specialising in renewable energy generation and energy conservation. The company estimates that once the system is fully operational, it will generate an annual output of 4660kWh and offset approximately 2,503kg of CO₂ per annum. The Schueco modules also have an output guarantee of efficiency for 25 years.

A monitoring system attached to the modules will be linked to an LED display in the reception area and to the SMA web portal, which can be accessed anywhere and can also be linked to the university website. The display in Reception will allow visitors to see the live output in kW and the total historical kWh generated. It will also show the total amount of CO₂ offset in kilograms.
Although there is the capability for linking excess capacity from the system into the National Grid, it will in fact be fed routinely into the university’s own electricity supply as a way of helping the environmentally-conscious university to reduce its overall carbon footprint.

The architects for the project are Stern Architects (based in the Sparkhouse Studios Phase 1 building), the main contractor is Lindum Building Services Ltd of Lincoln and the M & E contractor that employed Freewatt Ltd is Bellmarsh Building Services of Sleaford.