Saint Mary’s Kennington is a grade two listed church in Ashford. We installed a 3.25 kWp PV array comprising 13 x Upsolar M250P modules on the south facing side of the church. Through a combination of Feed-in-Tariff and displacement of the cost of mains electricity, it provides the parish with a source of revenue which will help it to offset the costs of maintaining an historic building. Annually the array can be expected to contribute revenue of about £780 to the parish coffers.
Obtaining planning permission to install photovoltaic panels on a building of architectural and historical significance is necessarily an exacting process. We worked closely with the parochial committee to prepare and present its application.
The array itself is mounted within an inverted roof pitch which hides it from direct views from the ground. Cable runs have been laid discreetly to minimise their visual impact.
To mitigate the impact of shading from the adjacent roof and a nearby tree at low angles of solar incidence, a Solar Edge 3000 inverter was employed. Each panel is linked to its own power optimiser, which provides maximum power point tracking (MPPT) for that panel. This means that shading on one panel does not reduce the performance of other panels in the array.
