Sports shoe manufacturer New Balance has installed a 50kWp solar array on its factory rooftop in Flimby, Cumbria.
Completed by local solar installer Sundog Energy, the 208 PV modules will help New Balance significantly slash its utility costs by consuming the electricity generated from the solar panels onsite. In addition, the 50kWp array will help the British manufacturer to reduce its annual CO2 emissions by as much as 20 tonnes per annum.
The company’s Flimby factory employs a production team of over 200 people, with production runs at around 28,000 pairs of shoes a week. The new solar installations will allow the company to take advantage of the feed-in tariff, with the revenue generated from the scheme providing the sportswear manufacturer with an attractive, index-linked income for 20 years.
Martin Cotterell, founder and technical director of Sundog Energy commented: “Solar power is a win-win solution for any business at this time. It means they can capitalise on their unused roof spaces, save money on energy bills and earn money by generating their own free electricity with zero carbon emissions.
“With payback on systems like this one, expected in little over seven years, everything generated after that becomes pure profit. It is easy to see why solar power makes perfect business sense.”
