GREENVALE BENEFITS FROM NEW SOLAR PANEL ENERGY

Greenvale, one of the UK’s leading suppliers of fresh potatoes, has installed more than 2,100 Solar PV panels across four sites, the company announced.

The panels will generate 425,642kWh of electricity over 12 months – enough energy to power 104 homes for a year or to boil 16 million cups of tea, according to Greenvale.

The sites in Cambridgeshire, Berwickshire, Cornwall and Perthshire, however, will be using the generated power to help run the packing lines where the 500,000 tonnes of Greenvale potatoes are packed for their customers every year.  As well as generating electricity, the solar panels save dramatically on the company’s CO₂ emissions – an estimated 204,735kg.

The solar panels which were installed in collaboration with Cambridgeshire firm, Beechdale Energy Ltd, are part of Greenvale’s environment strategy which aims to reduce the company’s water use by half, CO₂ emissions by 20 percent and eliminate landfill waste by the end of 2015.

Jo-Anne Baptie, Group HSE Manager for Greenvale, said: “It has taken a little under a year to complete this quite ambitious solar panel installation programme.  The four sites are now looking forward to reaping the benefits of cutting their Co2 emissions significantly helping them to reach their target of 20% by the end of 2015.  I am proud to be part of a business that takes its environmental responsibilities so seriously and which is prepared to make a substantial investment in green energy.”