A NSW company, Martin’s Fertilizer, is looking at considerable savings when its manufacturing facility switches fully to large scale solar power. Martin’s Fertilizer have installed grid-connected solar inverters at their plant in NSW. By switching to solar, the fertilizer firm expects to reduce their energy bills by about $45,000 a year. The project will be undertaken by SolarMax and the installation of the solar facilities will be handled by Ygene Energy.
Martin’s Fertilizers is among the largest manufacturers of premium bagged and bulk fertilizers, potting mixes and garden products in Australia.
“We decided to turn to solar power as rising energy costs impacts on the price competitiveness of our products,” says Brendon Martin, Director of Martin’s Fertilizers.
“The carbon footprint for the production of fertilizers and soil tends to be fairly large and as this requires a significant amount of energy for productions, solar power makes perfect sense as it will reduce our reliance for electricity from the grid,” he adds
Martin’s Fertilizer : The Specifics
SolarMax supplied six 15 kW 15MT2 and one 10 kW 10MT2 grid-connected inverters to the project. This was coursed through Ygene Energy. When the project is completed, the 100kW rooftop solar photovoltaic system will consists of 420 250kW Yingli Solar photovoltaic panels installed in Yass, NSW.
This large scale solar PV system is guaranteed to generate more than 170MWh of solar power every year. When it is operational, Martin’s Fertilizers projects that the company will realize an annual savings of up to $45,000 a year.
The carbon footprint of this NSW fertilizer firm will be significantly reduced by about 157 tonnes as a result. This will enable the company to deliver an internal rate of return (IRR) of about 26 per cent a year.
Martin’s solar PV system will also utilize the SolarMax web-based monitoring platform. This will allow the firm to have a real-time access display of performance data, and on-going updates on the performance of the solar PV system.
Ygrene Energy
Ygrene Energy, the installer of this large scale solar project has all praises to this latest project of Martin’s Fertilizers. “Being one of the first manufacturing businesses in Yass to turn to solar, Martin’s Fertilizers is a great case study to help businesses understand why solar is a great value proposition,” says Tim Davaris, Ygrene Managing Director.
With the dependable performance of SolarMax’s photovoltaic systems, Martin’s Fertilizers can really look forward to substantial savings in electricity bills, as well as considerable reductions in their carbon footprint.
SolarMax’s MT series inverters boast of maximum efficiencies of up to 96 per cent. They can also be installed indoors and outdoors. These power inverters also satisfy the safety requirements stated in AS/NZS 5033:2012 standards (IEC 62109-1/-2).
Other accreditation requirements of the Clean Energy Council (CEC) such as the AS 4777.2 and AS 4777.3 are duly satisfied as well. These parameters will give this NSW fertilizer company the assurance that the solar PV system installed in their facilities will enable them to realize substantial savings in their electricity bills and operational costs.
