Organic Food Producer Continues Sustainability Efforts with Rooftop Solar

A SECOND rooftop solar PV system for organic food producer Yeo Valley Organic was recently completed by SolarEdge Technologies.

The installation of a 623MWh rooftop array at its Newton Abbot manufacturing facility is the next step for Yeo Valley’s ambition to become 50% electricity self-sufficient within the next 10 years.

It follows an earlier installation of a 1.13MW rooftop system at its Isleport site. Together, the PV installations are expected to cut carbon emissions by 400 tons each year.

Karl Tucker, Chairman, Yeo Valley Farms, said: “Our commitment to invest in green technologies as part of our Sustainable Development Business Plan is an important part of our vision to build a more sustainable future that involves reducing food miles, improving packaging and being ‘powered by nature’.”

Rooftop Solar

The solar projects were installed by Solar South West (SSWUK Ltd), using SolarEdge’s DC-optimised inverter for the solar roofs of the production facilities.

The SolarEdge system uses power optimisers to increase the energy production of each module in the array by overcoming issues such as shading and soiling that can limit output in traditional string inverter systems.

Jonathan Bensted, Managing Director at SSW, said: “Ensuring the safety of its people and property was an important consideration for Yeo Valley. It was impressed by SolarEdge’s suite of embedded safety features, which automatically reduces the voltage in each solar module to a touch-safe level to enable maintenance teams to access the roof safely, and arc fault detection. We’re finding that many of our top-tier clients are asking for this feature for the added peace of mind it brings.”

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