Latest Blog Posts
New for 2016 - Poultry Farm heat pump system nears completion
- 18th February 2016
Our latest heat pump installation will provide heating and cooling for two, new, 50k broiler sheds.
With just four weeks to go before the 'bird in' date, our team is working hard to complete the installation of the three x 240kW heat pumps. We have laid 12,000m of horizontal collectors in a tight footprint and have finished the 14,000m of piping in each shed for the underfloor heating.
... Continue reading
Solar helps with refrigeration costs
- 2nd February 2016
As we enter the new 2016 solar PV tariff regime, our first customer will be a North Wales food business supplying chilled and frozen foods. A business like this is well suited to solar PV, with a large, south facing roof, good electricity supply and a constant, high energy demand due to the use of refrigeration.
With the solar energy used at source, it is the ideal example of energy decent... Continue reading
TGE Group Guest Speaker at Energy Now Expo 2016
- 11th January 2016
Visitors to Energy Now Expo in February will be able to hear TGE Group's Technical Director, Matthew Evans, give a talk on the benefits of heat pumps in agriculture at 12pm on Thursday, 11th February 2016 at Telford International Centre.
Using a series of TGE Group case studies, Matthew will draw on his extensive experience working within the renewables industry and in particular with he... Continue reading
Shame on the Government for turning its back on Solar
- 17th December 2015
I cannot believe what I have just read in the Government’s response to the FIT Review. This, combined with the mad dash for fracking and selling off our nuclear power to the Chinese, shows that DECC’s energy strategy has been written by the Chancellor and is completely out of line with what was agreed in Paris only last week.
It is ludicrous that solar PV has the potential to be such a... Continue reading
Solar boosts self sufficiency at poultry farm
- 3rd December 2015
A combination of renewable technologies can seriously boost investment returns as H Timmis Farms shows with their recent installation of a solar PV array alongside an existing heat pump system.
The installation of a 1MW heat pump, providing heat to four new chicken sheds, has been running successfully since June this year. The ongoing costs of the system are based on electricity requirement ... Continue reading
Ongoing RHI Compliance
- 25th November 2015
To comply with the non domestic RHI scheme, owners are required to carry out regular maintenance of the equipment and heat meters, in line with manufacturer instructions and keep a record of the maintenance schedule. However, statistics from TGE Group’s After Care team show that only 50% of customers take out maintenance contracts with biomass installations, whilst the figure is just 20% for ... Continue reading
Do we need Energy Storage?
- 13th November 2015
The groans coming from the National Grid are getting louder as the ageing infrastructure struggles with renewable energy generation exceeding network capacity. Without a suitable storage mechanism, the Grid’s answer is ‘curtailment’, effectively sending excess power to ground or stopping turbines from turning. What a waste!
The main problem is that solar and wind turbines are intermitt... Continue reading
Combining Renewable Effort
- 10th November 2015
It may seem a daunting prospect to invest in two renewable technologies at once, but in the case of heat pumps and solar PV, they are natural partners offering impressive results when working together.
In the past year, we have installed this powerful combination to help a range of industry sectors bring down operating costs and increase returns. Instead of exporting excess electricity a... Continue reading
Cleaner greener milk
- 9th November 2015
Over the last ten years we have been aware that the carrot of renewable incentives would slowly diminish, to be replaced by the stick of non compliance.
This has now become evident for dairy farmers as a leading producer, Tesco Sustainable Dairy Group (TSDG), announces that members will be measured annually for environmental management including an annual carbon footprinting assessment.
... Continue reading