AR Power have installed a commercial solar PV system at a global tube manufacturer based in the North East of England.
Salem Tube International is the number one supplier for high quality heat exchanger tubes in carbon steel, stainless steel, nickel alloy and special alloy. With the largest stock of heat exchanger and condenser tubes in Europe, Salem Tube International has the ability to meet your heat exchanger tube requirements no matter how demanding.
They have sites all around the world including Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, Indonesia, and North America.
The company wanted to install commercial solar panels to two of its buildings at its operation in Prudhoe, Northumberland, as they are a high consumer of electricity, with factory metal tubing stress relieving equipment, an extrusion press, fining machines and bending /manipulation equipment, it was a natural progression to fit solar power. As part of a drive to become more carbon neutral, they have also converted most of their company vehicles from being fossil fuel powered to 11 EV’S and a small number of Hybrid vehicles. They also have 16, 22 kw vehicle chargers on site.
Following on from initial discussions about the project, we received their half hourly energy data and were able to pull together a detailed proposal for the PV solution.
Once the agreement for the project was in place, our in-house operations team were able to plan an installation date, order the equipment and make arrangements for all safety measures to be put in place to keep everyone on-site safe during installation.
Our scaffolding partners erected full scaffolding to the curved roof building which met class B requirements ensuring it did not impact deliveries or the day-to-day operation of the manufacturing facility internally and externally. We also fitted internal safety nets to sky lights to protect people working on the roof.
As with most of our projects, there was zero disruption to the day-to-day operation of the business. To carry out work internally, we used our industry knowledge and expertise to ensure we could reach the areas we needed to get to without disrupting the workforce, and we connected the system to the mains outside of operating hours.
The systems combined size is 414.92kWp, consisting of 1012 panels which will generate 367,975kWh’s per year saving the company thousands of pounds on their energy bills and manufacturing costs. It will also help Salem Tube offset 76 tonnes of CO2e a year.
Based on our projections, the company’s payback period for the system would be less than 4.5 years, and the system would save them almost £3m on energy costs over a 25-year period.
Adam Black, Project Manager at AR Power said “This was a great project and company to be involved with and the team at Salem Tube helped us understand key elements of day to day running and requirements at the two facilities. All parties were very pleased that we were able to cover all elements of the installation with zero disruption to the company’s fast-paced manufacturing operation while keeping everyone safe on site.”
Howard Ions, Managing Director at Salem Tube International said “The installation was on time and we were fully informed before and all the way through the said installation. We had almost no if any downtime in production and needs we carefully understood by AR Power and they diligently worked around our production facility.
“I would without any hesitation recommend AR Power Limited, as their knowledge, experience, and dedication to Solar power must be beyond equal.”
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