The Tawny Hotel – Solar Ground Mount

The client

Set across 70 acres of gardens, woodland and lakes in the Churnet Valley, The Tawny is a luxury hotel offering distinctive stays in a carefully designed natural setting.

With an outdoor pool, restaurant and extensive grounds, the estate has significant energy demands. The hotel wanted to reduce its reliance on grid electricity, manage energy costs and strengthen its environmental credentials, while ensuring any renewable energy installation complemented the surrounding landscape and minimised disruption to guests.

The solution

Kembla designed and installed a 162.5 kWp ground-mounted Solar PV system, using previously unused land beside the hotel car park.

The bespoke installation provided a practical way to generate renewable electricity on-site without compromising the estate’s character or interrupting day-to-day operations.

Working closely with the hotel’s onsite team, we coordinated the installation around existing bookings and events, completing the project in December to allow the system to begin generating through a full year of solar production.

The system integrates with the hotel’s existing COMAP system and includes SolarEdge monitoring to track performance and energy imports and exports.

The impact

The installation gives The Tawny a new source of on-site renewable electricity, helping the hotel reduce its reliance on grid energy, manage operating costs and make progress towards its sustainability goals.

With an estimated annual generation of 175.57 MWh across all sites, the project demonstrates how underused land can become a valuable energy asset.

Key benefits

• Lower energy costs through on-site renewable electricity generation.
• Improved energy visibility with SolarEdge monitoring of system performance and energy imports and exports.
• Reduced environmental impact by generating electricity from a renewable source.
• A practical route to sustainability with an installation designed around the hotel’s landscape and operations.

Project at a glance

• System capacity: 162.5 kWp
• Solar panels: 250 × LONGi 650W modules
• Optimisers: 125 × SolarEdge S1400 optimisers
• Inverters: 2 × 50 kW SolarEdge three-phase Synergy inverters
• Monitoring: SolarEdge Modbus meter for import and export monitoring
• Estimated annual generation across all sites: 175.57 MWh
• Reported payback period: 3.9 years
• Equivalent trees planted annually: 1,559

Making better use of available space

The Tawny project shows how businesses with suitable land can turn previously unused space into an opportunity to generate renewable electricity, reduce exposure to grid energy costs and support their wider environmental objectives.

At Kembla, we develop renewable energy solutions around each client’s site, operational requirements and business goals – delivering practical recommendations and installations designed to work for the long term.

Hear from our Managing Director, Declan Adams, on how the installation was carried out to minimise disruption and from Josh, General Manager at The Tawny Hotel, on how the installation is performing in this video.