PROJECT:
Farleigh School, Hampshire
Solar PV system transforms Farleigh School’s energy sustainability goals
Farleigh School is a co-educational Catholic preparatory day and boarding school located near Andover, Hampshire. Set in 60 acres of scenic parkland in the Test Valley, it was originally founded in 1953 as a boys’ boarding school. Now welcoming around 430 pupils, the school has expanded its facilities significantly over the years and continues to modernise under the leadership of Father Simon Everson, with a strong focus on sustainability.
Farleigh approached Powercor to support its sustainability vision with a large-scale solar PV installation. Despite an existing Solis system and site-wide wiring constraints, Powercor successfully delivered an integrated and efficient 246.98kWp solution.
SolarEdge technology was selected to ensure maximum system performance, monitoring, and safety. The installation included optimisers for flexibility across roof types, intelligent inverters for commercial-grade energy conversion, and a mobile app for real-time monitoring.
At a glance
- Solar PV & Controls
- Electrical Services
OUR APPROACH AND IMPACT
To ensure full control and safety, a Hark Technologies system was deployed over the school’s VLAN. This innovation allows automatic shutdown of solar inverters during generator operation or fire alarms across the estate, making it one of the safest and most advanced school PV systems in the UK.
The project not only meets the school’s renewable energy goals but also delivers significant savings in energy costs, aligns with its environmental ethos, and sets a new benchmark in school sustainability.
Energy Saving
A fully integrated solar PV system across the entire school estate.
Carbon Reduction
Significant reductions in energy costs and carbon emissions.
Safety
Smart safety controls via Hark Technologies and VLAN network.
Future Proofing
Future-ready infrastructure supporting energy independence.
“Farleigh School partnered with Powercor to enhance our energy efficiency on the back of their strong reputation in the renewable and photo-voltaic sector.
We knew that it was going to be a challenging project as we already had a small array of solar panels on one of our buildings, so to install an additional 5 major systems to our site with all of them inter-linked and talking to each other was pushing innovation to its limit.
Their expertise in energy sustainability and solar systems was proved and they have dramatically reduced our costs and carbon footprint.
Everybody involved made the whole process easy, from all the technical information and applications to the electrical installation and external roof arrays, Powercor were there to help, and we look forward to doing further business with them.
Tim Lee-Elliot,
Estate Bursar Farleigh School
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