GE Power Conversion Gets Solar Underway with Ortus Energy

Specialist solar development company, Ortus Energy, has completed the first phase of a fully funded Power Purchase Agreement (PPA*) for one of the leading electrical engineering organisations, GE Power Conversion.  

Ortus Energy have worked in conjunction with GE Power Conversion UK to provide and integrate a 400kW PV (photovoltaic) system into GE’s Marine Power Test Facility in Leicestershire, UK.

The supply of this system by Ortus has contributed a further part to GE’s journey towards carbon neutrality goals, in line with the organisation’s ongoing corporate commitment to sustainability. GE’s Marine Power Test Facility is now equipped with a 400kWp roof-top system of 962 panels that will save around 70 tonnes of CO₂ annually and generate an estimated 315,000 kWhs of clean energy per year to help run the facility.

The four-and-a-half-acre site is dedicated to land-based innovation, test and emulation of full scale, multi-megawatt (MW) integrated electric power and propulsion systems and new energy technologies for naval and other maritime platforms. The facility needs energy to run extensive tests on its electric ship equipment. These include both high and low voltage systems, AC and DC, fixed and variable frequency electrical systems which are all highly configurable and fully interconnected via the land-based, integrated marine micro grid.

The facility’s existing architecture enabled Ortus’ PV system to be accommodated and optimized to work in conjunction with GE’s energy management system and an array of existing energy sources including grid, vessel prime movers, diesel generators, energy storage, and other equipment with varying energy-demand profiles.

To help optimize the solar power utilization, the PV system provided by Ortus was implemented as four separate but interconnectable roof-mounted arrays, to allow the best configurability into the Marine Power Test Facility’s automation and energy management system.

Peter Oram, Sales and Commercial Director at GE Power Conversion UK, said of the collaborative and forward-thinking project: “The system upgrade has been conceived and integrated in such a way that all sources of energy, from fuel to grid supply, can be optimized for efficiency, carbon reduction and operating cost. It’s important for this advanced Marine Power Test Facility and the customers that rely on it, providing a full-scale demonstration of future, greener maritime technologies and their deployment within a micro grid.”

GE, an energy infrastructure leader, is already part of the UK government’s Supply Chains for Net Zero initiative, aimed at driving industrial decarbonization, and this latest solar initiative continues their mission to make operations more sustainable, as well as lowering energy bills in today’s increasingly volatile market.

Phase two will commence in early 2023 at GE Power Conversion’s systems and manufacturing facility in nearby Rugby and has the potential to be nearly five times the size at 1.8MW output.

Having recently signed a deal with international assets investment company, Fiera Infrastructure, to deploy £100m of investments into the UK market, Ortus Energy is a major new player when it comes to guarding against energy uncertainty and currently have 300MW of commercial and industrial solar PV projects in development.

Managing Director, Alistair Booth explained: “We’re delighted to help GE improve their environmental profile, ESG commitments and carbon footprint, as well as locking-in a sizeable portion of their energy price for 25 years, at no upfront cost. Our fully integrated approach to building, financing and operating distributed energy streamlined the project for them and the solar PV system will be particularly beneficial for the Marine Power Test Facility site, as it looks to decrease its reliance on grid electricity.”

*Commercial & Industrial (C&I) PPAs are longer-term deals that fix a set rate directly from the energy source. They ensure organisations benefit from low-cost, clean energy, without any capital expenditure, that’s independent from the grid and not exposed to the volatility of open-market forces and prices – and increasingly the most cost-effective and sustainable options are distributed renewable energy sources.