Traditional chutney and preserves makers Tracklements has switched to solar power to help make its award-winning range of more than 60 products at its Wiltshire factory.
The company, which is well-known for producing the UK's first wholegrain mustard and the popular English Onion Marmalade, turned to the region's leading renewable energy specialists, Solarsense, to design and install a solar power plant.
Tracklements expects the 82kWp rooftop array of photovoltaic panels to produce more than 69,000 kilowatt hours of free electricity every year and shrink its carbon footprint by over 36 tonnes.
Becky Vale from Tracklements said: "We decided to generate our own clean electricity because we wanted to reduce both our operating costs and our impact on the environment. The new system is working really well and we're very pleased with it."
The installation is the first project in a line of planned environmental improvements for the Malmesbury factory that could include its own wastewater treatment plant and a biomass boiler.
Steve Barrett of Solarsense said: "Many more businesses are following Tracklements' lead and choosing to install renewable energy generators such as solar panels, biomass boilers and heat pumps. Renewable energy on a large or small scale can help reduce their carbon footprint as well as their costs and also protects against future energy price rises."
For more than 40 years Tracklements has been hand-making an award-winning range of chutneys, sauces, mustards and jellies and now employs 40 people. Its products are exported worldwide as well as being sold in farm shops, delicatessens, butchers and stores across the UK.
