COMPANY PROFILE
2014
Dragon Energy Solutions
+44 1554 540024 | www.dragonenergysolutions.co.uk
A renewable company with fire in the belly‌ Dragon Energy Solutions is quickly becoming one of the largest commercial solar PV installers in the UK. This innovative, passionate company has an experienced and knowledgeable workforce and is continuing to complete large installations around the country. Directors; Jason Oakley, James Davies and Robert Gammon tell Total World Energy more about the roaring success of this Welsh renewable specialist‌
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Dragon Energy Solutions Based on the stunning South Wales Coast with its roots firmly fixed in the local community, Dragon Energy Solutions are rapidly moving towards its goal of becoming a major UK provider of solar photovoltaics. Formed by Directors Jason Oakley and James Davies, the team was completed when they invited Robert Gammon on board. Whilst the company is relatively young, the three Directors have each been involved in the solar PV sector for over five years. “I was working as an independent consultant and had some commercial projects that needed delivering, I was getting frustrated dealing with solar installers who promised a lot but delivered very little. A mutual friend introduced me to Jason and
James to see if we could progress anything together. I liked them straight away, we’re all different characters but we share the same values and goals,” says Gammon. “Obviously I was over the moon, when I was asked to become a Director of Dragon and I’ve loved every minute of it. We all have different skill sets and experience, which we feel provides a balanced mix.” After dealing with a number of suppliers, Dragon was introduced to BayWa.
STRONG PARTNERSHIPS “They impressed us from day one,” says James Davies. “The products that they offered were quality and well-priced. We’d spoken with numerous companies and felt they favoured products
it suited them to sell, rather than the product that was best for our clients. “We’ve always been determined to install top quality systems and BayWa seemed to have a similar insistence on quality. “They introduced us to Solar Edge and we now use Solar Edge kits on all the systems that we install. “We also started using Baywa’s Nova Tigra short rail mounting system, which our fitters love. “Our relationship has grown from strength to strength largely due to the support that they provide and the ease of access to their team. “The knowledge and expertise at BayWa is impressive and has always been readily available to us. Ben Robinson who looks
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Dragon Energy Solutions
Dragon Energy Solutions Head Roofing Engineer, Jon Davies overseeing installation of Yingli panels at a CK site using BayWa’s Nova Tigra Short Rail Mounting System
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after our account and Ian Draisey, BayWa UK’s MD, always take our calls and are generous in sharing their vast experience. “Chris West (Technical Manager) has been invaluable in providing technical expertise on our more complex installs, and again is always available to us. “To be fair, BayWa saw the potential we had and it’s nice that now we are one of their biggest clients in the UK, their faith in us has been rewarded. We’ll be ordering close to one megawatt of kit over the next four to six weeks and our pipeline indicates that we will be installing one megawatt per month within the next few months,” he adds.
SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS Being located in the homeland of
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Welsh rugby country, it’s probably no surprise that the Dragon Energy team are passionate supporters of their local rugby team ‘The Scarlets’. “We’re all lifelong supporters of the Scarlets and grew up watching them play. The club is known globally and has a reputation for producing great players like Phil Bennet, JJ Williams, Ray Gravell and, more recently, George North and Jon Davies” says Jason Oakley. “It was a huge deal for us to be given the contract to
Speaking about the installation, General Manager of Scarlet’s Jon Daniels says “The fact that Dragon were prepared to engage with us on the full sustainability agenda and were prepared to work with us on what was a pretty complex process, was what swung it for them. “Once they had the go ahead, Dragon Energy’s team has had a window of less than three weeks to install over one thousand panels and I have to say, they were excellent. “Sustainable for us means two things. Obviously there’s the green agenda around renewable energy and also the fact it makes us sustainable as a business; so the fact we can make savings on our electricity means a great deal to us and contributes to ensuring that this club of ours, which has been around for 142 years, is around for the next 142 years again.” Oakley continues: “At 250KW, the ‘Parc Y Scarlets’ installation is the largest system at a sports stadium in the UK. The array is located on the training barn which is situated next to the stadium. “We had a few challenges,” he laughs. “The roof work had to be completed in just over a week, but during that time the barn was used for a number of events with thousands of attendees plus we experienced 120mph gales. “Aside from the weather conditions, the roof work was straight forward. We used
install a 250KW system at the new Scarlet’s stadium, ‘Parc Y Scarlets’. “The Scarlet’s brand is loved in this part of Wales and there was enormous competition to secure the project,” he says.
BayWa’s Nova Tigra short rail mounting system which allows a really quick installation.” The power generated from the system needed to be utilised in the main stadium, so a cable was run across to the north stand
Dragon Energy Solutions
and had to run 300m around the stadium to be connected.
OWENS ROAD SERVICES “We had been speaking to Owens Road Services for some time, after seeing the work at Parc Y Scarlets they decided to install Solar PV at four South Wales sites,” says Oakley. The project totals 1.5MW and is due to start with a 640KW installation at Baglan, Port Talbot this month, with the electrical team running 17 kilometres of cable on the roof. Dragon’s roofing team will then use BayWa’s Nova Tigra short rail mounting system to attach 2560 Yingli Panels. Solar edge invertors and optimisers will be used to complete the system providing Owen’s with full monitoring of the system. Owens won’t be the only ones monitoring the system though. “We monitor all of our commercial installations,” says Robert Gammon. “If there is a problem, we get an automatic alert from Solar Edge. “We love the fact that we can fix a problem before the client is even aware of it. Quite often, the first they will know is when we call to say that we will be on site to do a repair. “Our aim is to over deliver and to provide the best after-sales service possible. “We all know how frustrating it can be trying to get companies to live up to their after-sales responsibilities; for us it’s an opportunity to demonstrate our long term commitment to our clients,” he says. Further installations at Owens sites are scheduled in a 12 week programme of work. Owens
Bridgend (150KW) will be installed during the Baglan installation, then 345KW at Port Talbot and 250KW at Owens Llanelli head office. Being a haulage company, Owens are under pressure to reduce their carbon footprint and installing solar is a great step in the right direction. The road haulage sector is showing huge interest in solar PV, it makes perfect sense, there is pressure on operators to reduce carbon and most hauliers have warehouses with large suitable roofs.
“We’ve always been determined to install top quality systems and BayWa seemed to have a similar insistence on quality” THE FUTURE “We’ve just been asked to install 75KW for a small local haulier and we are speaking to one of the biggest hauliers in the UK who are also keen to install tens of megawatts of solar,” says Gammon. “Our pipeline is diverse and we’ve got some exciting projects lined up. Currently, we are installing 500KW for CKs supermarket. The sites range from 70KW to 12KW. CK’s have been great to work with; we installed a 20KW system for them and they were so pleased they asked us to
install at all of their sites. “At the other end of the spectrum, we are also in advanced discussions with an international company regarding a 20MW project. “Whilst we get excited about the larger projects, we still value the smaller local work. We can fund any size project, which is fantastic in the current economic climate. It’s great that businesses without that capital to invest in renewables can still reduce their operating cost by opting for a funded system. “The first conversation we have with a client is usually about a funded system. Quite often, on seeing the returns available, they opt to self-fund but for many the funded option is a total nobrainer,” he adds. “We provide a complete service to our clients, from initial analysis and system design, through to installation and commissioning. To ensure we deliver consistency in our standard of work, we have recently set up Dragon Electrical Installations. We worked hard to attract the right personnel to head this up and are delighted with the team we have built. One of the Directors, Stuart Jones, has joined us after working for BayWa for the past four years and he brings extensive knowledge of the renewable industry. His appointment again strengthens the ties between Dragon and BayWa.” Within weeks of forming the company, Managing Director Neil Sykes was successful in securing a contract to provide a complete lighting refit at Freudenberg’s Baglan plant and Dragon says it is delighted to have Freudenberg as one of its first clients
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