Aviva Insurance plc
Perth (UK)
The ambition
Aviva is famously an environmentally conscious insurer: the firm became carbon neutral in 2017 and aspires to generate or purchase 100% of its energy from renewable sources. The Perth site has the second highest energy usage of any Aviva office, making it the natural choice for the firm’s second solar carport. Following the success of the Norwich solar carport, RenEnergy furthered its relationship with Aviva with the completion of a second solar carport at the insurer’s Perth site.
The solution
The bespoke steel carport structure was designed especially for the Perth site. The carpark has a unique layout, so the carport’s modular design enabled ease of installation, and ensured no parking spaces were lost.
Rather than concrete, we used screw pile anchors to root the base of the structure.
Should the solar carport ever need to be removed, minimal traces would be left on the landscape.
The electric vehicle (EV) charge points are mounted to the carport frame to minimise clutter and disruption in the carpark.
The panels were mono-pitched and positioned at a five-degree angle in a southerly direction. This enables maximum solar energy generation, but also provides enough space for a vehicle to park beneath the panels.
As with all our projects, we worked hard to keep site disruption to a minimum. Parking is at a premium on this 1000-employee campus, so construction was phased to ensure only 70 parking spaces were ever out of use at any one time.
Designing a bespoke array for Aviva means that the system perfectly complements the site. The office is a grade-A listed building, situated in a ‘stepped’ campus that backs onto the natural landscape. We camouflaged the battery with natural colouring and tree-planting to ensure the system is unobtrusive.
1.1MW
Total installed capacity
3,282
Solar panels installed
50
Inverters installed
“The solar carport presents an exciting opportunity to combine renewable energy generation with battery storage and EV charging solutions, and hints to the future of energy capture, storage and use.”
Damian Baker, Managing Director, RenEnergy UK
342
The array covers
342 parking spaces and provides 812,000 kWh of energy every year.
“It’s vital that businesses in all industries put words into action when it comes to tackling the climate emergency. That’s why we are taking strides to reduce our environmental impact and partner with leading technology specialists to help make that happen. The Perth solar and storage initiative is a great example of how Aviva is innovating to secure a sustainable energy supply and support the electric vehicle revolution.”
Stuart Wright, Property and Facilities Director, Aviva
The benefits
The modular design of the carport enabled the system to adapt to the unique layout of the carpark, facilitating ease of installation, and ensured no parking spaces were lost.
RenEnergy’s bespoke design approach offers the following benefits:
The solution’s battery can store 700-900 MWh of energy each year, allowing the site to operate off-grid for 5 hours a day during peak times.
This helps relieve strain on the local network during periods of peak consumption when the carbon intensity of power is typically highest.
CO2
Annual saving of 400 tonnes – that’s equivalent to 1 car driving for 200 years on petrol
Note that all estimated performance figures are calculated using industry-standard systems and norms, assume ideal operating conditions, and would have been estimated as at the time of the installation. CO2 equivalent analogies source