Max Events, Dorchester: 54kW Off-Grid Solar and Battery

The project

The Max Events site near Dorchester runs a workshop, an extra-curricular school facility, a set of cabins and a safari-tent glamping field with electric heating and hook-up, all previously kept running on diesel generator power. A mains grid connection had also been priced up and ruled out as too expensive for the site.

We installed 120 DMEGC 450W panels and two Sunsynk 30kW off-grid inverters, feeding twelve high-voltage 5.12kWh batteries arranged across two expandable racks. The generator and inverters are set up to kick in automatically once the battery reaches 12%, sync with the system, then hand back over once it recovers to 10%, so the site never loses power. The racks were built with room to expand, with a second barn already planned.

Conservative estimates put generation at around 44,000 kWh a year from the panels alone, and all of the roof work was completed in three days. Based on the customer's own figures, the move away from diesel is projected to save over £1,000,000 over the life of the system.