Yearsley has installed solar panels at two of its cold stores – Heywood in Greater Manchester, and Holmewood near Chesterfield – to produce about ten per cent of each site’s annual electricity consumption.
Each site has about 2,500 sq m of photo-voltaic cells producing 310,000 kilowatt hours a year. Yearsley reckons they will each save upwards of 170 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per warehouse.
The panels have been installed on the southern elevation of each of the two storage units as this is the most effective for catching the sun’s rays.
The £2.2m investment is part of an ongoing strategy by the company to increase the energy it obtains from renewable sources by 2015. Yearsley plans to install either solar or wind power at other depots around the UK.
Managing director Harry Yearsley said: “Cold storage by its nature requires a large energy input and, with fuel prices increasing on an almost daily basis, any measures we could employ to create our own electricity would be welcome. Solar PV panels were the natural solution for the group as it makes sense to use the large exposed surface area of the warehouses to generate sustainable electricity.”
