Dundee Renewable Energy Society's first production figures from November 2024 to May 2025 are here, and they show a promising start for the solar meadow:
As the graph shows, the solar panels have covered an increasing percentage of the James Hutton Institute's (JHI) Invergowrie campus electricity usage through spring, peaking at more than half the total coverage in May.
The carbon dioxide saved by generating our own renewable electricity compared with using electricity from a gas power station is 2933 tonnes - this covers 280 people's annual carbon footprint (if using the UK average).
Whenever we have grid export, this means that all of the campus' electricity needs were being met by the solar panels at that time. On a sunny day the solar meadow can power the campus entirely, all day. However as a research institute with round the clock facilities like controlled environment rooms, the campus has high electricity usage at night time as well: we are exploring options to extend our efficiency. Batteries are an option but they are still expensive, and need to work very hard doing several jobs to pay for themselves. Changing the demand-side use of the energy is another option which we can explore with the James Hutton Institute.
We are pleased to see our impact in numbers and look forward to seeing what the rest of the summer brings!
