Published on Monday, Nov 28 2011 by John Woods
One of the largest motoring groups in the UK, JCT600 has announced that it is to install major
solar panel arrays at several of its showrooms across the country.
JCT600 – which specialises in new, used and prestige cars in Yorkshire and the North East of England – is to pump £400,000 into the sustainable energy project, which will see 600
solar power systems being installed at showrooms in Lincoln, Bradford and Sheffield.
Initially, the panels will be installed at JCT600 Audi in Lincoln, JCT600 Peugeot in Bradford and JCT600 Mercedes-Benz in Sheffield by 8 December this year, the firm's chief executive John Tordoff told Motor Trader magazine.
A six-month assessment process was carried out in order to identify the most suitable dealerships for the solar arrays, and these were found to be best suited, thanks to the orientation and construction of the buildings.
It is expected that the panels will generate 120,000 kw hours every year, which will mean a combined income through savings on power bills and incentives from the government of more than £60,000 a year.
The panels are also tipped to be able to provide large energy savings for each dealership, producing around one gigawatt of electricity at each of the three locations over the 25-year Feed-in Tariff (FiT) time period. This will mean a vast saving of around 1.5 thousand tonnes of Co2 emissions.
Based on current energy prices, the solar arrays are tipped to save around £300,000 in electricity purchase costs over the period, as well as providing £1.4 million through the FiT scheme.
Group property director at JCT600, Mark Taylor, told the magazine, “We have been working on this project over the last year as it forms part of a wider company initiative looking at improving our energy usage and efficiency across all of our dealerships.
“This initiative has focused on finding innovative ways of reducing our carbon footprint as well as saving money and the PV scheme will play an important part in this."
“With the recent announcement of the cutting back of
feed in tariffs, installing the solar PV system quickly has become a priority so that we are able to maximise the pay back of the investment cost within the shortest period of time, making it a commercially attractive and viable project,” added Mr Taylor.
The firm also revealed that, should the solar arrays prove successful at the initial three dealerships, they could be introduced at other sites in the near future.
To read more about solar energy, go to the
Energy Saving Trust website.
Want to find out more? Contact the author.