Following Greg Barker's (Minister of State, Department of Energy & Climate Change) announcement of the UK's solar energy roadmap at Solar Energy UK this week, the Minister visited Bentley Motor's factory in Crewe to tour their impressive 20,000 panel commercial solar roof installation.
Solarcentury acted as the principal contractor for developers and operators of the project, Lightsource Renewable Energy, undertaking the engineering, procurement, construction and on-going maintenance of the powerful system, which was completed in March this year.
Frans van den Heuvel, CEO at Solarcentury commented: "At a time of rising energy prices, smart businesses are increasingly looking to reduce their energy costs by installing solar on their existing roof spaces and structures. The panels utilise the sun, a clean, sustainable power source, and the whole system is really efficient because energy is used at the point of generation."
Michael Straughan, Bentley's Member of the Board for Manufacturing, commented: "The solar panels have generated over 2,200,000 kWh of energy since its installation in March, having a hugely positive impact on the efficiency and sustainability of our manufacturing operations. We're very proud of the project and so are delighted to welcome Greg Barker to the factory and share the information behind that success."
Key facts
- The solar plant was developed and is operated by Lightsource Renewable Energy.
- The green electricity generated by the solar plant is supplied by Lightsource to Bentley Motors via a power purchase agreeement.
- Comprising over 20,000 panels, the 5.2MWp system is one of the largest roof installations in the country.
- The PV system produces up to 40% of Bentley's energy requirements at peak times, enough energy to power over 1,200 households.
- The array is three times more powerful than the second largest roof mounted system in the UK.
- Cuts Bentley's CO2 emissions and provides them with more certainty over their energy expenditure for the next 20 years.
