Pocklington’s Bakery in Alford is now harnessing the power of the sun to help power its operations, following the installation of a 150kWp array at its headquarters.
The ground-mounted solar installation is expected to supply almost 90% of the bakery’s daytime demand and 60% of its total energy requirements.
Pocklington’s Bakery was advised to install the 600-module strong array by Lincolnshire County Council’s resource and waste efficiency programme, SUSTAIN Lincolnshire. SUSTAIN Lincolnshire undertook an energy audit for the company and identified a number of areas that the company could save money and cut its carbon emissions. The baker initially implemented a number of the recommended resource efficiency techniques, slashing transport costs by 10% and saving £200 a year on lighting costs. Looking to improve on the already 56 tonnes of carbon emission savings, Pocklington’s Bakery investigated installing solar PV.
Chris Pocklington, managing director of Pocklington’s Bakery, explained: “Our business relies on electricity for baking, and we are acutely aware of our environmental impact both locally and internationally. SUSTAIN Lincolnshire was instrumental in our decision to go ahead with the installation because it was one of the key recommendations they provided in the resource efficiency audit they conducted over four years ago.
“The SUSTAIN team were confident that solar panels would be a good investment for us, so after a lot of thought and research, we decided that renewable energy was the next logical step for our business.”
Andrew Jackson, SUSTAIN Lincolnshire Project Officer from Peterborough Environment City Trust, added: “We couldn’t be happier that Chris and his company decided to take our advice and install solar panels to power the bakery. Thanks to the installation and other waste reduction initiatives applied as a result of our initial audit, Pocklington’s will not only save thousands on energy bills each year, but they’ve also reduced their carbon footprint significantly.”