Biomass Boilers for Low Carbon Heating & Solar PV for Clean Green Electricity!
About Lahinch Leisure Centre
Lahinch Leisure Centre is a newly redesigned family-friendly, state of the art Leisure Centre that encourages and advocates people to reach their Health and fitness goals. Lahinch Leisure Centre want to empower, motivate, support, and include all people to better health and wellbeing. They are situated on the promenade in Lahinch with breath taking views of the coastline.
The Lahinch Leisure Centre retrofit journey began in September 2018 when engineers from Tipperary Energy Agency completed an energy audit to understand how much energy the building was using and pinpoint necessary works to upgrade the facility. Following the audit Tipperary Energy Agency were appointed Mechanical and Electrical Design Engineers and Energy Consultants.
Prior to the retrofit, the leisure centre (part of which was constructed in 1960), was poorly insulated with single glazed windows and inefficient lighting. It was cold and costly to run. Previous efforts to upgrade the heating system involved the installation of an air source heatpump. However, this heating system was never fully operational as it was not suitable for the sea air environment and following flooding was no longer in use.
WoodCo & SolarCo were selected to install two biomass boilers using wood chip for heating and a Solar PV array for electricity.
Biomass Project
The Vision for Heating:
Lahinch Leisure Centre require a large quantity of heat for its swimming pool and leisure centre. They were previously using oil which had become very expensive, and they wanted to switch to a renewable source of heat.
The Solution for Heating:
WoodCo installed two SUPERMAX Wood Pellet Boilers (300kW + 100kW). Lahinch Leisure Centre had an initial Capex of €135,000. They were able to avail of the Support Scheme for Renewable Heat from the SEAI, this means they get paid for the heat they produce for 15 years at a rate of €0.04/kwh. The biomass running cost is currently (wood pellet) €0.09kwh, so this results in a net heating cost of €0.05kwh. The Wood Pellet is sourced in Ireland, and they use 200 tonnes per annum. This results in savings of 100 tonnes of CO2 per annum. This is resulting in significant savings compared to oil.
Solar PV Project
SolarCo installed a rooftop Solar PV System at Lahinch Leisure Centre, to meet their electricity demand. Half the panels were erected in an east facing roof and half the panels were on the west facing roof. Overall 276 panels were used in this project.
138 kW of Solar PV Panels were erected with a 100kW Solis inverter. The electricity is mainly used for the leisure centre and swimming pool building. They use about 210,000 kwh per year.
The 138kW Solar PV System will produce around 126,731 kwh of free electricity per annum for the leisure centre.
This results in savings of €50,755 per annum (at current unit cost).
About Woodco & SolarCo
WoodCo/SolarCo has unrivalled experience in the sector. We are a 100% Irish owned, family run business with its foundations born out of the 1970’s oil and energy crisis. 50 years on, we are passionate about the role renewables can play in de-carbonising electricity and heat. SolarCo by WoodCo is one of Ireland’s leading providers of Commercial Solar PV Systems. We help companies futureproof their businesses and make huge savings on electricity bill by generating free, clean electricity.
WoodCo/SolarCo is an award-winning business, with a dedicated team based in Tipperary, Ireland. Receiving awards for innovation, Green Awards and Environmental awards, WoodCo and SolarCo are recognised approved installers by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland and the Department of Agriculture. We are proud of the role our team plays in the world’s energy transition.
Get in touch with WoodCo/SolarCo today to enquire about our wood chip/wood pellet boilers for heating or our Commercial Solar PV Installations for electricity.
062-74007