Ascott Milling

Ascott Milling is a full service sawmill located north east of Whangerei. They specialize in Macrocarpa and swamp Kauri, producing stunning timber, some of it over 45,000 years old. Ken Ellis, their Managing Director, realized that a good portion of their outgoing bills were dedicated to power.  Ken called on WhatPowerCrisis and Mark Eagles to set up a massive 10kW industrial strength photovoltaic array on the rooftop of one of their sheds. Ken now watches the performance of the system using an SMA SunnyBeam wireless monitor - so far he's recorded a 69 kilowatt-hour day, the equivalent of over three standard NZ houses!  Stay tuned: we will be posting more information on this ground-breaking commercial installation, as it sets a precedent for the standard of enterprise-strength renewable energy systems in New Zealand.