I was over at Powis Castle last Friday for a catch up meeting on all things environmental with Shane the property manager. Thought that I would take the opportunity to see how the nursery photovoltaic system was doing whilst I was there.
There are two photovoltaic systems in place down at the nursery – A 40 kw field mounted system.
I really like this site as the photovoltaic system sits quite comfortable alongside the buried coils for the 27kw ground source heat pump system.
A second 10kw ground mounted system is located within the nursery itself – nestled on the previously unused banked area.
The power generated is used on site first, again tieing in nicely with the electrical requirements of the heat pumps which provide heating for the glasshouses. 
Any surplus energy is then fed directly to Lady Violet’s tea room – remember Keith saying in previous blogs how the National Trust profile fits well with PV – when the sun is out, our visitors are at the property!
![]( "Lady Violets tea room")
- Lady Violet’s tea room
Add to this the fact that heating for the tea room is now provided by an Air-to-Air source heat pump, and things start to knit together.
So, how’s it going then?
Previously, the nursery and tea room electrical usage accounted for £6000 per annum out of the property budgets.
Using the latest reads from the PV systems at Powis nursery from the start of March until the end of August, the PV has provided £5390 in Feed-In Tariff payments for the generated electricity. Add in the fact that we are using the electricity on site, and therefore not having to import this in from the grid at 9 pence per kWh
Equals – Powis nursery operation is now an energy neutral operation.
