Stourton Park and Ride was developed by Leeds City Council to introduce a wave of integrated renewable energy technology into the city. Now open, it has became the first fully solar powered park and ride in the country.
Stourton Park and Ride aims to improve Yorkshire’s local electric vehicle charging network and provide better connectivity while reducing carbon emissions in the city. The £38.5m project will help the region on their mission to become net-zero carbon emissions by 2030.
The site hosts a large 1.2MW system of Solar Car ports, a Smart HV/LV infrastructure, a high spec Battery Energy Storage System and a vast number of Electric Vehicle Charging Points. The system provides the site with a reliable source of renewable energy and high quality EV charging facilities.
The project consists of a multiple Y shaped solar carports, which are placed, in curved rows to cater for the circular design of the park and ride site.
This layout means that the edge of each solar carport had to be placed extremely close together to maintain the bend around the site, which therefore, required an extra level of skill from our technical design team.
In addition to this, a 500kW/ 950kWh Tesla battery has been integrated into the main building to maximize onsite consumption of the solar PV and help alleviate some of the peaks caused by simultaneous EV charging events.
What’s more, the facility will boast a solar generational capability of 1.2MWp, along with top of the range EV chargers to support the upcoming transition to electric vehicles.
The solar carport and 26 electric car-charging points will result in 471 tonnes of carbon being reduced each year, which is the equivalent of removing 203 cars from the roads.
As a result of this project, Leeds City Council has a modern renewable energy system with the potential for future expansion.
The system will reduce carbon emissions for many years to come, which is critical in helping the region to achieve their carbon neutral by 2030 and supports UK road user’s transition to clean energy.
Going forward, we will retain a full O&M contract for the next 5 years to ensure that it meets continues to perform at optimum levels.
Read more about the Stourton Park & Ride project today.
What EvoEnergy Has Done This Year?
Our Company Carbon Footprint
EvoEnergy are delighted to have received an industry standard certification from Carbon Footprint. We are now a Carbon Footprint – CO₂e assessed company. In order to measure this, we were assessed to an industry standard certification by CarbonFootprint.com. To complete this assessment, we measured our business’s operations on a multitude of different activities including our office operating expenses, flights, fuel usage and other sources of carbon.
This has helped us to understand the level of our current emissions and has allowed us to set new targets for the future to not only reduce our direct carbon emissions, but also lower the impact of our wider operations. Ultimately, this verification highlights our carbon footprint measuring is to a high industry standard and provides us with recommendations on how to continue to reduce our emissions.
Our Results
Our assessment covers the period April 2020 – March 2021. This ensures that our results are comparable to the previous year.
This latest assessment has measured our carbon emissions at 42.55 metric tons of CO₂e, which is 1.22 metric tons per employee. This is a decrease of 6.08 metric tons overall from last year (13%), which demonstrates our continued dedication to reducing our impact on the environment.
In addition to this, our carbon footprint per employee has reduced by 37.4% which shows that we have successfully minimised our impact despite our company’s growth.
Not only have we offset these emissions, but we have also gone above and beyond to offset 125% of our footprint, equating to 54 metric tons of CO₂e. To achieve this, we have chosen to support a reforestation program in Kenya, which will help offset emissions, reduce poverty and protect natural habitats.
We are very aware that we need to practice what we preach which is why we are keen to measure and monitor our own carbon and this process helps narrow our focus.
What Are Our Actions To Improve?
As a company, measuring our carbon footprint allows us to understand the impact of our business activities. However, without taking action to offset these emissions and reduce them, we will not see much change.
That is why we have decided to participate in a reforestation program in Kenya to offset all this carbon through an offsetting programme approved by CarbonFootprint. Find out more about the project here: https://www.carbonfootprint.com/plantingtreesinkenya.html
Our website has been reviewed and approved by homeandgardenlistings.co.uk – <a href=”https://www.homeandgardenlistings.co.uk/Solar-and-Other-Renewables/C61-1-0.htm”>Solar and Other Renewables Listings</a>
We are proud to have been awarded the contract to construct two new HyperHub sites, next to Monks Cross and Poppleton Bar Park and rides. The two sites are a City of York Council £2.2m investment to develop the sites into high quality, high speed electric vehicle charging hubs.
Each HyperHub site will consist of solar PV canopies, battery energy storage, 4 Rapid and 4 Ultra Rapid electric vehicle chargers. The chargers will help the region to support the next generation of electric vehicles which have significantly larger battery capacities and support higher charging speeds. Construction on both sites started in February 2021, and is being led by us. The new sites at Monks Cross and Poppleton are scheduled for completion in June 2021.
City of York Council is a pioneer in the use of innovative green technology. Over recent years, the council has lead the way in providing a range of public charging facilities for electric vehicles to help reduce carbon emissions and improve local air quality thanks to EV’s eliminating NOx emissions at the point of use.
In addition to generating low carbon electricity on site through PV arrays, all of the electricity supplied from the national grid will be generated by renewable sources providing users with low carbon electricity and ensuring that no NOx emissions are emitted from electricity generation.
The council has successfully secured £1m of European Regional Development Funding and £800,000 from the Office for Low Emission Vehicles, along with £400,000 of the Council’s own capital funding to install the first two HyperHubs. This comes just at a time when the nation prepares to transition across to using electric vehicles with the announcement of a complete ban on sales of new petrol or diesel cars by 2030, with plug-in hybrid sales to end in 2035.
Why Is the City Of York Council Investing In HyperHubs?
When the council first developed their EV charging network in 2013, there were far fewer plug-in vehicles on the road. However, over the past few years, electric vehicle technology has progressed massively and these vehicles have now become a viable option for many everyday road users.
Cllr Andy D’Agorne, Executive Member for Transport at City of York Council, said: “We’re delighted to be working with EvoEnergy to build the region’s largest charging hubs in York. The two HyperHubs will support the next generation of plug-in vehicles – delivering high quality, high-speed electric vehicle charging hubs for residents and commuters.
“The project works alongside our Electric Vehicle Charging Strategy, which will provide a high quality charging network that meets the needs of residents, fleets, through traffic and commuters.
“To guarantee the best result for residents, we plan to continue to own our charging network. This allows us to plan how the network will grow, set tariffs, makes us directly accountable and enables us to deliver next generation chargers as quickly as possible.”
Cllr Paula Widdowson, Executive Member for Climate Change at City of York Council, said: “We were one of the first cities to introduce a public electric network several years ago which has become really popular. In 2014, there were 1,510 charging sessions, by 2018 that had increased to 13,695.
“We are delighted to be introducing the region’s largest EV charging hub. This is exactly what our EV strategy has set out to achieve. Providing a future proofed network with high quality facilities to support this increased demand. With associated air quality and climate change benefits, this will meet the needs of the next generation of plug-in vehicles.”
What is Included?
City of York has been able to secure funding from the Office for Low Emission Vehicles and European Regional Development Fund. This largely covers the cost of building the two HyperHub sites, along with a solar canopy system (100kWp) which will generate green electricity and keep users dry and a battery storage solution (348kW / 507kWh), meaning that the Council will be able to maintain a lower tariff than commercial operators can offer.
Both of the HyperHub sites will contain 4x Ultra-Rapid (150kW) and 4x Rapid (50kW) vehicle chargers, helping to support the uptake of modern EV’s that have larger battery capacities and are capable of Ultra Rapid charging. “We are proud to have been awarded these challenging multifaceted projects. They combine the full range of EvoEnergy’s technology offering, and it is a pleasure working with a future looking organization such as City of York Council.” Senior Design Engineer – Jonathan Roper
The development of this system will encourage private car owners, taxi drivers and business users to make use of the new facilities, therefore, improving the city’s overall carbon emissions.
Both of the HyperHub sites started construction in February 2021 and are scheduled for completion in June 2021. This investment is just the beginning of the journey for City of York Council as they revitalise their electric vehicle charging network in 2021 ready to support the transition to EV.
The project has received £1million of funding from the England European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is the Managing Authority for European Regional Development Fund. Established by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund helps local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support innovation, businesses, create jobs and local community regenerations. For more information visit https://www.gov.uk/european-growth-funding
This past year has been the most impactful period of time in recent memory as uncertainty surrounding Brexit and Covid-19 has forced many firms to adapt in unconventional ways. However, this year has also seen a massive shift in public perception towards tackling the climate change emergency as the need for renewable energy continues to grow.
Our skills and experiences that we’ve gained over the years has allowed us to now be at the forefront of this incredible industry and we intend to serve the anticipated demands which are due to present themselves over the forthcoming year.
Throughout this year, we successfully delivered a number of large-scale solar projects such as Airbus (773kWp), Simply Cartons (297kWp & 175kWp), MWW (683kwp), Portsmouth Hilsea Private Smart Grid (250kWp, 50kW / 135 kWh battery), Flamingo Flowers (917kWp), Jack Buck Farms (130kWp), Wrexham CBC (250kWp). Our skilled projects team were able to adapt and ensure that all of these projects were delivered whilst abiding by the dynamic government guidelines for social distancing.
We are also proud to announce that our installation team is making fantastic progress on the new development-taking place at Stourton Park and Ride. This is a monumental project for us as we are deploying a full range of our technologies (1.2MWp of Solar Car Ports, Smart HV/LV infrastructure, Battery Energy Storage and an Electric Vehicle charging facility). The project is due to be completed by May 2021 and will provide the site with a reliable source of renewable energy and high quality EV charging facilities.
Another key client of ours this year has been Big Yellow Self Storage who has continued to roll out solar PV systems to their stores throughout the UK, we retrofitted three systems this year as part of their ambitious green adaption programme, and also installed 3 new systems as part of their building programme.
The team have also been busy installing battery systems. These include the large-scale battery project for Kerry Foods (2100kW/ 3298kWh), and the bespoke battery at Gower Power (228kW/ 912kWh) which was installed on the edge of a solar farm. Both projects provided a unique set of challenges to our engineering team, but has allowed us to explore more opportunities within the renewable energy technology market.
In regards to awards, EvoEnergy has once again been recognised for its outstanding work this year. EvoEnergy received High Commended for ‘The Solar PV Installer & Contractors’ and Commended for ‘Energy Consultant/ Consultancy’ at the East Midlands Energy Efficiency Awards.
Ultimately, it has been another successful year for EvoEnergy, as we continue to innovate and expand our ever growing portfolio to include HV infrastructure upgrades. Our 2021 holds many exciting new projects in the pipeline and we will be looking forward to new opportunities in the coming year. We are starting our Christmas break from today and will be back to take your enquiries on Monday 4th January 2021.
EvoEnergy want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Solar Year!
In order to measure our corporate carbon footprint, we have been assessed to an industry standard certification by Carbonfootprint. To complete this assessment, we measured our business’s operations on a multitude of different activities including our office operating expenses, flights, fuel usage and other sources of carbon.
Our assessment covers the period April 2019 – March 2020. This ensures that our results are comparable to the previous year. This latest assessment has measured our carbon emissions at 48.63 metric tons of CO₂e which is 1.95 metric tons per employee. This is an increase of 6.36 metric tons overall from last year which we investigated and attributed to increased electricity usage due to air conditioning and additional staff but our total emissions per employee has dropped by 0.02 metric tons per employee. We are very aware that we need to practice what we preach which is why we are keen to measure and monitor our own carbon and this process helps narrow our focus.
As a company, measuring our carbon footprint allows us to understand the impact of our business activities. However, without taking action to offset these emissions and reduce them, we won’t see much change. That’s why we’ve decided to participate in the planting of 49 trees across the East Midlands to offset all this carbon through an offsetting programme approved by CarbonFootprint. Find out more about the project here: https://www.carbonfootprint.com/plantingtrees.html
Ultimately, it’s down to us all to make the change towards sustainability in order to create a greener future. Now is a good time to assess your net zero aspirations and talk to us about how we can help achieve them. Our team of renewable energy experts are available to provide Net Zero consultancy and deliver renewable technologies alongside supporting and maintaining existing renewable assets.
Get in contact today to see how we can help make your business’s operations more environmentally sustainable.
The impact of coronavirus has been felt all around in the world. It’s seen the economy come to a standstill and many businesses shut down all together. As the world attempts to restart and adjust to the new way of living, lots of firms have changed the way they operate in order to keep their staff safe.
An example of this can be seen in the reduction of office workers making their way into the workplace each and every day, and opting to work from home for a number of days instead. Here at EvoEnergy, our flexible working arrangements have meant that our staff can work effectively whether they’re at home or in the office, this means that there are less cars making the daily commute into work. As a business we took the decision to make this flexible arrangement with staff attending the office on some days but not every day the new normal, our permanent normal, to allow homeworking to become a greener way of working. To find out the impact of this, we recently conducted a staff survey to find out the planned frequency of their office visits now that we have a new way of working.
The results of this study showed that we’re due to see a reduction of 53% in office visits, which is a decrease of over 47,000 miles spent travelling to the office over the next year – saving 9.83 metric tons of CO₂e. This will significantly decrease the impact on our environment as less carbon emissions are being expelled into the atmosphere. This will help to move the country in line with the government’s net zero target by 2050.
Ultimately, it’s down to us to make the change towards sustainability in order to create a greener future. Now is a good time to assess your net zero aspirations and talk to us about how we can help achieve them. Our team of renewable energy experts are available to provide Net Zero consultancy and renewable (Solar, EV, battery) quotations alongside installation operations and maintenance support to asset owners.
Get in contact today to see how we can help make your business’s operations more environmentally sustainable.
The ongoing pandemic has caused disruption to many industries across the globe and has changed the way many businesses will continue operate into the future.
Despite volatile markets and dynamic economic conditions, the need to drive renewable energy forward remains a constant throughout this period and beyond. Due to the agility of our business, we’ve been able to quickly adapt to the changes which has put us in a fantastic position to provide an excellent service to many of our clients who, like us, continue to operate during this uncertain period.
Our team of renewable energy experts are available to provide consultancy and quotations alongside installation operations and maintenance support to asset owners. Now is a good time to assess your net zero aspirations and talk to us about how we can help achieve them.
The knowledge and experience that our team has collectively accumulated over the years makes us the ideal provider for your renewable energy needs.
Get in contact today to see how we can help your business.
EvoEnergy picked up two prizes at the Regional Energy Efficiency Awards 2020. During the evening’s event we received both the award for Highly Commended in the Solar PV Installer & Contractors category, alongside the award for Commended in the Energy Consultant/ Consultancy category.
The award gives our highly skilled team at EvoEnergy recognition for all of their hard work in delivering top quality results to all of our clients. This backs up EvoEnergy’s established reputation as industry experts and demonstrates our ability to meet the needs of our customers in this dynamic environment.
The award recognises EvoEnergys approach by providing specialist expert advice with a consultancy level approach to our projects. By overcoming challenges, finding solutions and innovating, we pride ourselves on being the turnkey provider in the renewables energy industry sector.
As specialists in renewable energy technology, we’re in the best position to help your company become more environmentally sustainable. Whether it’s solar PV, electric vehicle charging points, battery storage systems, Smart Grids or HV/ LV infrastructure upgrades – get in contact today to see how we can help.
Today is the winter solstice, in the annual cycle of the seasons, so apt times to review the exciting year EvoEnergy have had.
At the start of the year, Jonathan Roper and Tim Hickman attended and spoke at the Embedded Systems for Integrated Photovoltaics in Rural Buildings conference near Shanghai. Tim spoke about safe installation methods in curtain wall facade systems with best practice examples. They also took the opportunity to visit key panel supplier, Trina Solar who kindly showed them around their factory.
This year, EvoEnergy have continued to build and strengthen many relationships with suppliers and energy consultants. Working closely with Syzygy Renewables to deliver multiple projects up and down the country – from Symington’s Leeds and a rooftop solar carport at Victoria Gate Shopping Centre to Stirling Removals in London.
Another key client this year has been Big Yellow Self Storage. Who have continued to roll out solar PV systems to their stores throughout the UK, EvoEnergy have installed four systems this year as part of their ambitious building programme.
After completing a number of solar PV systems, EvoEnergy have also installed a number of battery projects. In particular the installation of EvoEnergy’s third battery project at United Cast Bar, this was completed in the middle of the summer. This battery project has set a precedent of having large scale battery systems attached to existing commercial energy infrastructure to offset the demands on the grid during high demand hours to avoid peak electricity charging.
EvoEnergy completed our award winning battery and EV charging project at Lyreco, Telford. This one-of-a-kind project is complimented by its already existing installation of a 3.8MWp solar PV array by EvoEnergy. This included a new HV to LV transformer, a 500kW/950kWh Tesla battery and three twin rapid 22kW EV charging points.
After completing a number of iconic installations in 2018, EvoEnergy worked on another unusual project by installing a 150 kWp PV array on the roof ay Merefield House the head office of Wakefield District Housing (WDH) in Wakefield. The PV helps offset their carbon emissions and the staff engagement on this project was the key element that drove everything.
In 2017, Games Workshop asked EvoEnergy to commission a 404 kWp PV system. This year they again approached EvoEnergy with a new challenge, to upgrade their electrical infrastructure to increase their manufacturing capacity. This included the installation of a new HV/LV transformer and RMU. This was the first HV/LV installation that EvoEnergy have installed, independent of any solar or battery installation.
EvoEnergy has once again been recognised for its outstanding work this year. EvoEnergy received “The Solar PV Installer” and “Contractor of the Year” at the East Midlands Energy Efficiency and Healthy Homes awards for the second year in a row.
Followed by a historic a hat-trick at this year’s Solar Power Portal awards, collecting ‘C&I Storage Project of the Year’ prize for the work at Lyreco. Our Oat Errish Farm project won ‘Best in Show’, in collaboration with GB-SOL, EvoEnergy designed a PV array in the form of a helical spiral on the highly unusual house which featured on Grand Designs. Finally EvoEnergy took home ‘Contractor of the Year’ for the second year!
EvoEnergy are both happy and sad to announce the retirement of Noel Parkin. He has been an outstanding presence at the company for more than 10 years, a true inspiration for all of us. Noel has been a stalwart of the solar industry from the very beginning. He started his days in the renewables department at E:ON and moved to EvoEnergy in 2007. In that time he has built a solid reputation for being approachable and knowledgeable about all things solar. Noel has diligently delivered many projects over the years, including West Bridgford Garden Centre and RouteNote, the internet music distributor. On behalf of everyone at EvoEnergy we wish Noel all the best and a well-deserved rest.
It’s been another successful year for EvoEnergy, as we continue to innovate and expand our ever growing portfolio to include HV infrastructure upgrades.
Our 2019 holds many exciting new projects in the pipeline and we will be looking forward to new opportunities in the coming year.
EvoEnergy want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Solar Year!
EvoEnergy are proud to have smashed this year’s Solar Power Portal and Energy Storage News Awards last night by scooping up an historic hat trick, retaining the ‘Contractor of the Year’ award title and winning the public vote for ‘Best in Show’.
The night started with EvoEnergy winning ‘C&I Storage Project of the Year’ prize for their work on Lyreco. This unique project combines solar PV, battery storage and EV charging points that help Lyreco future proof their company.
For the first time in the history of the Solar Power Portal awards, they opened the vote to the public to choose a project they believe is worthy of the ‘Best in Show’ title. EvoEnergy won by the slimmest of margins for their work on Oat Errish Farm. Although EvoEnergy no longer installs on domestic properties, this unusual enquiry excited their technical and design team to make an exception for this fantastic home.
To make up for the trio of awards, EvoEnergy retained the prestigious ‘Contractor of the Year’ award for the second year in a row. Managing Director Mark Wakeford, along with members of the EvoEnergy team, collected the accolade.
Abigail Booth, Marketing Manager, EvoEnergy Commented:
“These awards are testament to the team’s hard work and drive to deliver excellence on everything we do. Achieved through challenging ourselves to keep innovating and pushing the limits in a very demanding industry, these efforts are not going unrecognised”
This year’s Solar Power Portal ceremony took place in the heart of Birmingham at the Hilton Metropole, where nearly 600 industry professionals, hosted by TV personality and renowned architect George Clarke, celebrate the industry’s successes with 16 awards on the evening. The ceremony forms part of a 3-day agenda for the Solar & Storage Live event held at the NEC.