Cottage Farms are a leading fruit packer and supplier in the UK. Located in Kent, they are capable of packing for over 50 local fruit growers with additional capacity during the summer months to pack for global apple growers who send their produce to be sold in the UK.
It is vital for Cottage Farms to keep evolving within their operations to keep up with the ever-changing market and their dedication to this is highlighted in the construction of a new packing facility in July 2014, which was part of a £3.4m investment to strengthen their service and production capacity. Understanding the importance of offsetting the carbon footprint of such a construction, Cottage Farms entered into a Power Purchase Agreement with us, enabling us to completely fund, design, supply, and install a 215kW solar PV solution to the new facility’s rooftop, which is capable of generating enough green electricity to be consumed by the facility’s operations.
Later, in May 2019, an additional cold store extension was constructed, capable of holding a further 1,500 pallet spaces and under another Power Purchase Agreement provided by our shareholders, Harvest Green Developments proudly funded, specified, engineered, and constructed another 160kW of solar energy to the rooftop to add to the previous phase.
With operations expanding at Cottage Farms, a third phase of solar generation was added to available land at the front of the premises in 2021, which had previously been a low-producing apple orchard. Just like the previous phases, all elements of the solar PV installation, including funding, obtaining planning permission, and commissioning were undertaken and managed by Harvest Green Developments with Cottage Farms entering into their third Power Purchase Agreement with us. The new 420kW PV system is mounted on a specifically designed and engineered framework that provides a secure platform to orientate the solar panels to the optimum tilt and direction.
Across the three phases, the overall total solar generation at Cottage Farms is just shy of an impressive 800kW, which is sufficient to power the entire site with clean electricity during their peak operating period.
Key Facts
Phase 1 was completed in 2015 and is expected to generate over 200MWh annually.
Phase 2 was completed in 2019 and is expected to generate over 150MWh annually.
Phase 3 was completed in 2022 and is expected to generate over 430MWh annually.
By July 2024, the combined Solar PV installations on site have generated over 4GWh of clean electricity!
Sector: Food, Drink & Cold Storage
Cottage Farms is a large apple and pear packing facility based in Horsmonden, Kent, processing millions of boxes of fruit every year and Harvest Green Developments have been supporting them ever since our incorporation in 2018 with fully funded renewable energy solutions via our Power Purchase Agreement offering.
Install Type
Phase 1: Uses Fronius inverters totalling 233.30kW to produce a DC system size of 215kW.
Phase 2: Uses the module-level optimisation technology from SolarEdge with a DC system size of 313.86kW coupled up to 233.30kW of inverters. Additional import & Export energy monitoring is installed to allow the client to measure how much energy is being used from the solar panels and being imported from the grid.
Phase 3: Following on from phase 2, SolarEdge optimisation technology was installed with a DC system size of 426.60kW coupled up to 414kW of inverters.
Technology
The Solar PV system installed for Cottage Farms includes: SolarEdge Technologies inverters and optimisers, with Solar PV modules from Trina Solar & Hanwha Q Cells and mounting kit from K2 Systems GmbH & Solarport Systems.
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