Third Farmar building gets solar power

Text and photo: Sveinung W. Jensen, Tellus Kommunikasjon

Sten Ove Salvesen and Elias Lende from Flekkefjord Elektro are busy installing the mounting rails that will hold the solar panels.

The building that will soon be producing electricity came with the neighbouring 25,000-square-metre site that Farmar acquired in 2023. The purchase doubled the company’s footprint in Lundevågen and has since formed the basis for extensive development of the area.

Initially, around 400 square metres of the roof will be covered. The new solar installation will have an installed capacity of 205 kWp, representing its maximum nominal output under standard test conditions.

“WE HAVE INVESTED significantly in the base in recent years, and energy measures are a natural part of that development. We already have solar panels on the workshop and warehouse. Now we are moving on to the next building,” says John W. Nilsen, Managing Director of Farmar.

This will make it the third building at the base to be equipped with solar panels.

BACK IN 2022, around 350 square metres of the workshop roof were covered with panels. Shortly afterwards, the company decided to continue the rollout on the warehouse.

The electricity generated is used to provide shore power for Farmar’s tugboats. Any surplus electricity is fed back into the grid.

On the new building, work is beginning on the side facing the sea. The plan is for the remaining section of the roof to be covered at a later stage.

“We are installing the panels on the front section first. The idea is to do the other side later,” says Salvesen.

EVEN ON A LARGE industrial roof, safety places clear limits on where the panels can be installed. Fall-protection measures have been installed along parts of the building, while scaffolding has been erected at the rear.

The panels will also be set around two metres back from the roof edge on either side.

“Health and safety comes before everything else. We need to be able to work safely up here, and the weather and wind can make the job challenging. That is why we do not install the panels right up to the edge,” Salvesen explains.

He also acknowledges that the market for solar installations has changed. The number of projects has declined, although there is still activity among industrial and commercial customers.

“We still have a fair amount of work in the industrial segment, but the solar market has contracted. From a purely financial perspective, the case is not as clear-cut as it once was. That is why it is positive to see companies that still want to invest,” says Salvesen.

FOR FARMAR, Nilsen says the investment is about more than short-term electricity prices.

“We have to look at the buildings and the base from a long-term perspective. When we have large roof areas that are well suited to producing energy, we believe it makes sense to make use of them,” he says.

With a further 400 square metres of solar panels and a total installed capacity of around 500 kWp, the company is taking another step in the development of the site it acquired three years ago.

“We will continue to develop the base step by step. This is one of several measures that will allow us to make better use of both the buildings and the infrastructure than before,” says Nilsen.