EA Chamberlain - Landlord

Case Study:
EA Chamberlain - Landlord, Stroud Valleys

EA Chamberlain - Nailsworth Mills Estate

Value to Landlord and Tenant, a Win-Win

Nailsworth Mills was originally a famous woollen mill in the Stroud Valleys. In 1879 the Mills were bought by E.A. Chamberlain who manufactured fibreboard. When demand for the product fell (mainly because of the introduction of plastics), the company developed its main asset - property - providing a base for a wide range of businesses on the site.

Today the estate's properties are occupied by hi-tech industries, shops, restaurants, offices, factories and a garden centre, providing a nucleus of employment and business opportunities in the heart of Nailsworth. Mypower provided feasibility studies for 3 buildings that were suitable for solar and were one of 4 contractors entering a competitive tender. Mypower was awarded the contract to install all three systems.

Enhanced monitoring and generation with SolarEdge

SolarEdge inverters provide a number of advantages over a traditional string inverter setup. The SolarEdge system operates independent pairs of panels rather then a string of panels (typically 20 panels) so electricity generation is not impacted by any shading of panels further down the string. The system and panels are very easy to monitor via an intuitive mobile app or a web browser.

Key facts and predictions

These figures are for one of the three systems installed:

99.75 kWp (350 panels) - installed by Mypower.
92,910 kWh - electricity produced per annum.
£8,845 - projected first year income and savings assuming 53.6% of electricity used on site.
11.2% - projected first year return on capital invested, before capital allowance benefits.
5.17 p/kwh - equivalent forward purchase price of 2,101,996 units of electricity over 25 years including Operating & Maintenance costs.
36 tonnes - CO2 emissions avoided per annum.
7.5 years - system payback before finance, tax and capital allowance benefits.
£360,768 - total projected income and savings over 25 years after indexation.
61% - saving from solar PV electricity compared to grid supplied electricity at 13p/kWh.
In the first 7 months of operation, the system produced 45,510kWh, and was on track to match, if not over-perform, against our annual generation projections.

EA Chamberlain - Landlord, Stroud Valleys

Steeped in history, securing the future

As a business with a well-established history, the investment in solar PV on three of the units is preparing the family business for the seismic changes ahead this century. Climate change is upon us, and the three solar PV systems installed will help EA Chamberlain, Nailsworth Estate and their tenants avoid 67 tonnes of CO2 emissions per annum. In addition, with the shift in transportation away from the Internal Combustion Engine to Electric Vehicles (again driving down CO2 and other harmful emissions), the solar PV systems could help to provide the power for these vehicles, delivering significant commercial benefits.

Offering Power Purchase Agreements to tenants

We advised EA Chamberlain of the process for incorporating a Power Purchase Agreement with each tenant in order to offer them a reduced unit rate of electricity for all the solar power they consumed.

No interruption to tenants' operations during installation

"Historically our mill was powered by waterpower. It seems right to being using natural resources to power industry, shops and offices once again. PV seems to be the right way to go with power being generated where it is used and placed on roofs that weren't pretty in the first place. Our aim is to generate electricity for as many of our tenants as possible, firstly for the obvious environmental reasons, but also to provide them with better value electrical power than their usual suppliers. Win-win!"

"We are delighted with the three arrays that have Mypower installed. Mypower won the bidding process by answering all my detailed questions and always being on hand when needed to answer another. The installation process was not easy on a busy site but Tom Sivil of Mypower made sure that all our tenants could carry on their business without interruption by liaising with all parties. Mypower also organised a professional team to liaise with export contracts and dealing with other bureaucratic organisations and so I had very little to do with any potentially ghastly Red Tape"

James Chamberlain, Managing Director - EA Chamberlain