Powering ‘Henry’ HQ with renewable energy

Exeter renewable energy specialist SunGift Solar has completed a flagship 250 kW solar PV system for Numatic International – manufacturer of the world-renowned Henry vacuum at the company’s HQ in Chard, Somerset.

Generating an estimated 235,000 kW hours each year (equivalent to the average annual electricity usage of 71 homes), the 1,000-panel system stretches over three roofs at Numatic’s manufacturing facility and took just under a month to complete. It will help power thirty-four computer-controlled injection-moulding machines and will save the production of more than 120 tonnes of CO2 per year.

“This is an exciting development for us,” said Numatic property manager Andrew Smith, “and an important step towards meeting our carbon reduction targets. This, combined with a number of other investments that we have planned, will take us towards our challenging goal – and with rising energy costs, it is more important than ever.”

Numatic chose Exeter-based SunGift Solar following a competitive tendering process involving a number of renewable energy installers.

“We chose SunGift on the strength of the very impressive, identically-sized system they had installed in 2012 at the Met Office premises in Exeter,” added Andrew, “and we are delighted with the work they have carried out for us. SunGift completed the system exactly on time and to an excellent standard and their team were all helpful, friendly and professional.”

The installation continues an exceptional run of commercial renewable energy installations for the Exeter-based renewable energy specialist, which has also recently completed large systems for the Met Office, Exeter City Council and Darts Farm.

“Numatic’s solar PV system is a clear demonstration of how beneficial solar PV systems are for commercial businesses,” said Gareth Walton, business development manager at SunGift Solar. “Like many other organisations with high and rising energy costs, Numatic’s system will reduce its energy bills as well as bringing in a substantial income from the Feed-in Tariff and reduce its carbon emissions and boost its green credentials.”

The £250,000 installation is based at Numatic’s manufacturing site in Chard, Somerset, which operates continuously to produce around 5,000 products per day.

The PV system is expected to generate energy bill savings and Feed-in Tariff payments totalling more than £50,000 per year, which means that it will have paid for itself in less than five years. Feed-in Tariff payments run for 20 years, so Numatic will receive a further 15 years of index-linked income from the scheme.

Numatic has been involved in the UK plastics industry carbon reduction scheme since 2009 and has so far achieved its target savings every year. But a new target of a 17% improvement on 2008 has to be achieved by 2020.

Energy costs have increased significantly over the past decade or so, far outstripping the rate of inflation. According to the government average energy costs for businesses and other non-domestic users have more than doubled in less than ten years, and are projected to increase up to 55 per cent by 2020. Such large increases are having a significant impact, with recent surveys finding that 80 per cent of businesses are concerned about the cost of energy and nearly 10 per cent would be forced out of business if energy costs continue to rise as they have done. According to the surveys 50 per cent of businesses have either installed or are considering installing renewable energy to help reduce their energy costs with solar PV the most popular technology, which has been installed or considered by 61 per cent of manufacturing businesses.