GARIC has divulged details of the firm’s work on a mammoth 40-week contract in Roslin, near Edinburgh, for The Mears Group.
Representing a ‘first of its kind in Scotland’, the welfare equipment specialist said is has ‘massively’ reduced the housing project’s Co2 output and diesel costs, thanks to its new hybrid Solatainer product, described as a self-sufficient, off-grid power supply capable of powering large construction sites using voltaic energy.
Mears was the first company to utilise the Solatainer. During the first five weeks of the contract alone, Garic said that Mears was able to reduce diesel costs by 90% compared to what it would have cost to power a traditional diesel generator set up.
During the same period, the Solatainer was tested by harsh, wet conditions and, according to Garic, still managed to reduce Co2 output by 19,103kg – an 89% reduction in the projected emission from a comparable traditional generator set-up.
“This eco-friendly power horse is created sustainably from a single-use 20ft ISO shipping container with integrated renewable-power and storage, backed- up with a traditional generator,” Garic said.
The product can run for 12 hours on its bank of batteries charged by voltaic energy before the back-up generator is needed. A data dashboard provides weekly statistics to indicate if the generator has been utilised at all, how much fuel has been used, and the projected Co2 saving.
The back-up generator is fully contained within the unit so even if it does have to be called into action, the noise is muffled, which is a huge advantage when working on sites surrounded by people’s homes.
The contract was serviced out of Garic’s Scottish depot in Falkirk. Garic’s reginal account manager Jim Connolly said, “It’s really rewarding to see the incredible savings Mears is making, not just in monetary terms but in the ability to drastically reduce its CO2 emissions. And whilst the Solatainer (is) a little more expensive to hire than a traditional generator, the bottom line savings far outweigh the initial rental cost.”
Mears contract manager George Duncan added, “We chose Garic’s site set-up solution because it was clearly evident that there’s now a real and reliable alternative to make sites sustainable and economical. But we also needed to know that the Solatainer was going to be able to cope with the challenges that this site was going to put upon it over long periods – and it certainly did. When we analysed the data from first five weeks, the generator had only kicked in 33% of the time, which is a massive step forward.
“Data from that same period concluded that the hybrid Solatainer hire cost, combined with the cost of diesel used, gave us a massive 70% saving on the bottom line compared to if we had opted for traditional generator. We are very impressed indeed.”
