Firm secures extended solar warranty for farms and firms

According to Local Power Managing Director Pat Smith: “The extended warranty we’ve secured with Fronius will provide additional peace of mind for customers when it comes to the quality and robustness of their solar PV investment.

“We’ve been working with Fronius since establishing our business almost a decade ago. Founded in 1945, Fronius is a family-run enterprise which is currently employing over 7,000 staff.

"For the past 30 years, the company has been developing and building quality European warranted and manufactured inverters, a key device which converts direct current (DC) electricity – generated by solar panels – into alternating current (AC) which can then be fed back used on the farm or sold into the electrical grid.”

The extended Local Power/Fronius warranty applies to both inverters, a key benefit in such a highly competitive marketplace and supports the 30-year product and performance warranties offered by German manufacturer Solarwatt for the PV panels provided as part of Local Power Ltd’s Premium System Option.

Pat Smith added: “To celebrate almost 10 years in business, we recently met with Fronius in Austria, where we struck our extended warranty deal, which not only underlines the strength of our partnership but is indicative of the confidence that Fronius has in the quality of its inverter technology.”

The new deal was agreed ahead of the closure of the seventh tranche of the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine’s TAMS III Solar Capital Investment Scheme (SCIS) on Friday, June 6th.

“When it comes to most solar PV investments, a two-to-three-year payback is currently guaranteed for Irish farmers thanks to the attractive 60% TAMS grant, VAT refund and 100% ACA tax benefit,” said Mr Smith.

Encouraging farmers and businesses to progress their grid connection agreement, Pat Smith stated: “Connections which permit the export of surplus power to the grid are going to become more difficult to secure as more and more renewables are connected. Therefore, a grid connection agreement is valuable and essentially a contract which allows customers to export energy for payment indefinitely into the future.

“In addition, solar PV is good for the climate agenda with every kilowatt-peak (kwp) installed reducing carbon by up to 500kg annually.”

Local Power’s offering also includes a deal with DLL (Rabobank), allowing customers to match savings made on their electricity bills against repayments over a three-year period, while delivering little or no negative impact on business cash flow.

“We're building out close on 10 megawatts (MW) of rooftop solar a year, majoring on farms and businesses across the length and breadth of Ireland, from Donegal to Kerry,” said Pat Smith.

“We work very closely with our farming community and are continuing to develop our farm and agribusiness footprint right across the country. We hope that our extended warranty offer and other key benefits demonstrate our support for progressive farm practices as part of an industry which is helping to both build and secure Ireland’s renewable future.”

For further information, visit https://localpower.ie/