A Forres renewables company which recently won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise has scaled new heights with the installation of solar panels on Edinburgh Castle, one of Scotland’s most historical landmarks.
AES Solar, based at Lea Road in Forres, installed PV panels on the roof of the Scottish National War Memorial in the grounds of the popular castle.
Surrounded by a high parapet, the panels are not visible from the grounds and other vantage points within the city.
The 31.5 kWp solar PV system will soon get to work generating approximately 26,500 kWh per year, the equivalent to around 6,680kg of CO2. These carbon savings will contribute to the ongoing carbon reduction efforts at Edinburgh Castle.
This is not AES Solar’s first encounter with a historic royal site. The company was also fortunate enough to install their own-brand solar thermal panel – the AES Luminary – on Balmoral Castle Royal Estate. The installation was a result of an opportune encounter with AES Solar Managing Director George Goudsmit and Her Majesty The Queen.
Queen’s Award for Enterprise
The unveiling of the solar panels on Edinburgh Castle also comes a week after AES Solar was awarded The Queen’s Award for Enterprise for their efforts in Sustainable Development, the most prestigious business awards in the country.
AES Solar’s Business Development Manager Robert Wilson said: “This has been an incredibly rewarding and exciting project to work on. This excitement is shared across our whole team. The project has very much been a group effort with members across the company lending their experience and technical knowledge. The success of this project is also a testament to our fantastic partners and their products, SunPower Solar PV panels, the SolarEdge Inverter, and Sunfixings for the mounting system.
Managing Director George Goudsmit said: “I’m sure the rest of the team will join me in saying they will never quite view Edinburgh Castle the same again. Instead, we will take great pride in knowing we were the company that installed solar panels on Edinburgh Castle. Generating clean, renewable energy, all while discreetly hidden from passers-by. The sky’s the limit now that historic buildings can be part of the solution to net-zero in Scotland.”