At Leading Edge, we have over 12 years' experience designing and supplying complete off-grid power solutions for use in remote locations where there's no grid connected power available.
The systems we design are often bespoke, sized according to the power requirements of your DC / AC equipment. We have three pre-configured, self-contained off-grid power solutions - Smart BaseStation, PowerBox and SolarBox. Each offers different power outputs and options for integrating your equipment into the battery charging solution.
When choosing a power source for an off-grid system, a combination of two or more is ideal. Solar and our UK-made wind turbines complement each other perfectly as this graph shows - during the winter months, wind can provide more power input than solar.
Here are the building blocks for a typical off-grid solution
Taking the power load of your equipment and proposed remote location as the starting point, we design an off-grid power solution that will provide power 24/7. We recommend our robust wind turbines and professional-grade solar panels featuring ultra-high efficient solar cells from Sunpower.
Power generated is stored in hard working deep-cycle batteries for use by DC or AC equipment.
All our systems are battery-charging. Typical applications include:
- Off-site telemetry equipment, such as water level monitoring on reservoirs
- Data communications systems (broadband, radio comms, etc)
- Meteorological data logging and seismological surveys
- Construction security cameras and perimeter monitoring
Ready to tell us about your requirements?
Use the form to tell us your specific off-grid power requirements and we will be happy to put together a bespoke hybrid wind-solar power system. With years of experience in supplying off-grid power systems, our professional services extend to providing pre-wired control boards - an example is shown on the right - already installed in an enclosure.
At Leading Edge, our professional and personal service includes a bespoke design service, offering unrivalled expertise within the off-grid market. We calculate power output for individual months over the year for both solar and wind, making sure both forms of renewable energy meet your power requirement.
By adding a 20% safety margin should unusual weather patterns occur, we ensure the system continues to function 24/7. This gives you the peace of mind, the solution will continue to deliver power throughout the year.
Here's what we do:
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First, we need detailed information about the system's proposed location.
Ideally you supply a grid reference plus topographical information on the immediate area - is the site on a hill or in a valley, is it near buildings/trees? -
Then we do the wind & solar power calculations. We take an 18 year annual ‘average’ using data supplied by an international meteorological institute. For a UK-based system, we also cross reference this against a more localised (square kilometre) wind database. We are aware that many times the wind speeds will be significantly higher than the average and this has been factored in by using a Weibull distribution curve.
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Once the solar and wind data has been collected, we input this into the Off-grid Power Matrix.
This shows the estimated amounts of power generated over a 12 month period. On the Off-grid Power Matrix, we show the ‘load line’ in red. As power output is often at it's lowest during the winter months when solar irradiation levels are at their lowest, we design the system to produce enough power to accommodate the 20% safety margin.
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Where power requirements are high, it may make sense to supplement the renewables with a back-up generator or methanol fuel cell. This will cover the power load for a few of the winter months and means the system isn't over-sized, keeping system costs within budget. The generator would only kick in when the battery voltage dropped to a pre-set level and would run for the minimum amount of time.
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To give you complete peace of mind, you can remotely monitor and control the off-grid system. ; Using Victron's Venus GX or Colour Control GX, you can check battery status, receive alarm signals and change system settings without having to go on-site. This is a popular requirement for our industrial customers.
