BAE Systems' Samlesbury solar farm saves £300,000
BAE Systems installed the solar farm, which consists of 9000 solar panels, in April 2015 as part of an initiative to be more cost effective and reduce carbon emissions.
The solar farm was built on part of the disused runway at the site, which employs more than 4,000 people. Over a 12 month period the solar farm will generate enough energy to power a third of the site; the equivalent of powering 300 family homes.
Shaun Costain, Electrical Authority and Sustainability Team Leader for the Manufacturing Operations team, explained the financial benefits come in two parts: "The solar farm has generated £117,000 from a feed-in tariff which the Government pays us for the power we are not taking from the grid.
"We also benefited by reducing the amount of electricity we used from the grid. This generated an additional £184,000 saving for the same period.
"Overall this delivered a cost saving to the business of more than £300,000 which we can invest into making our products and services more affordable for our customers. Above all though there are the obvious environmental benefits with this scheme, which we are proud to deliver."
Nearly £150,000 was also saved across Samlesbury and its neighbouring site Warton, over the Christmas period of 2015; the lowest energy consumption has been for that period in the last 11 years. This saving was through a more effective ‘shutdown’ of the two sites between Christmas and New Year period.