Woodco assist Woodlands Hotel on their sustainability journey!

Woodco assist Fitzgerald’s Woodlands House Hotel & Spa on their sustainability journey!

This solar project will save the hotel approximately €74,907 of electricity per annum.

Fitzgerald’s Woodlands House Hotel & Spa is located outside Adare and is situated in 44 acres of organic private grounds and landscaped gardens. The Fitzgerald Family has been creating unique, magical weddings since 1983 in this unique location.

Seeking to be more sustainable and reduce ever-rising energy costs, The Woodlands Hotel contracted SolarCo/ WoodCo to supervise and install Solar PV Systems for the hotel. This began their sustainability journey.

Ger Kennedy and Sean Ryan of Woodco reviewed the project and ascertained the perfect solar system size would be 230kW. (kWp is the peak power of a PV system or panel. Solar panel systems are given a rating in kilowatts peak (kWp)
which is the rate at which they generate energy at peak performance, such as on a sunny day in the afternoon). The project was divided into two parts, commencing with ground mounted panels.

Phase one of Sustainability Journey – Energy and Shelter 90kWp

Phase one, consisted of the placement of 180 ground mounted
panels to the side of the hotel.
Perfectly situated to capture direct south facing light to give maximum
energy generation. The panels provided an added benefit – providing shelter and
grazing for the animals from the hotels
pet farm. This phase was completed in 2022 and generates 90kWp.

Phase 2 of Sustainability Journey and project completion – 140kWp Roof

Mounted Solar PV at Fitzgerald’s Woodlands House Hotel & Spa

Following on from the success of phase one of this
Solar PV project, phase two was completed in 2023. The flat roof on the hotel
was identified as the perfect location for 280 panels, bringing the system size
up to 240kWp. The finished project giving the hotel enough free electricity to make
the desired savings per annum.

At current unit cost of electricity (€0.3567 as of
02/05/2024.) this Solar PV system results in a huge saving of €74,907 of
electricity per annum.

Solar Panels were erected on the flat roof at the hotel.

At current unit cost of electricity (€0.3567) this Solar PV system results in a huge saving of €74,907 of electricity per annum.

The Woodlands Hotel were looking to make a saving on the ever-rising energy costs and looking to decarbonise their electricity. After contacting SolarCo it was advised that they needed a system that produced over 200,000 kwh per annum. The project was then broken into two phases, the first phase was 90kW of Solar PV on a ground mount to the side of the hotel. This system faces directly south and has the added benefit that the animals on their pet farm can graze amongst the panels and the panels can provide shelter for them!

With the completion of the Solar project, Woodco are now
continuing to work with the Woodlands Hotel in decarbonising their energy requirements and adding further reductions to their energy costs by installing a biomass boiler for their heating!

Right now, there are specific grants available from the SEAI for businesses in Ireland to get Solar PV and Biomass. This grant is called the Non-Domestic Microgen grant and WoodCo/SolarCo are on the approved list of installers. WoodCo/SolarCo assist our clients with the full grant application process and ensure all the paperwork is submitted. This grant is typically 40% of the cost of the installation.

Woodco are an Irish business operating out of Tipperary since 1970. Noted as experts in the biomass and renewable energy sector, Woodco design complete renewable solutions, delivered with professionalism and
emphasis on health and safety throughout each project.

SolarCo are now exclusive Commercial installers of Solar PV
throughout the island of Ireland. We have a number of large-scale projects
currently in progress.