Aegis has solar PV cells fitted to its offices

Aegis has had solar photovoltaic cells fitted at its Preston offices.  In total 29 panels have been fitted in the array which has a generating capacity of 8.27 KW of electricity.  They should generate annual savings of over £1,000 and reduce the company’s carbon footprint by 4 to 5 tonnes of CO2 per year.

The original requirement was for Aegis to repair its office roof, which had some small leaks.  The roofing contractor selected for these repairs also installs solar cells and asked whether Aegis wished to consider these.  Our analyses showed that the installation would pay for itself in five to six years and after that make money for the company.  Using the scaffolding and enabling works required for the repair work to fit solar cells also made the works more cost effective.   It would also have environmental benefits which we could assess using our environmental management system.  Finally, having one company delivering both the roof repairs and solar cell fitting made sense from a long term maintenance perspective.

The works were carried out in October and November 2017.  The solar cells are on the south and west facing parts of the roof.  Even though there isn’t much sunlight in the winter we’ve still seen the system generating a consistent 2.5 to 3 KWh on sunny days recently.

Aegis have also made other improvements recently which have reduced our environmental impact as a company.  Following on from the roof works, Aegis has replaced all of our office lighting with modern LED lights.  Previously we had arrays of fluorescent tubes in our offices.

As part of the process in setting up our ISO 14001 environmental management system we identified our lighting as an area where improvements could be made.  Using our contacts in industry we had a cost benefit analysis carried out of fitting LED lights throughout our offices.  By fitting LED lighting we could save over £1200 annually through lower electricity bills and reduced maintenance.  We would also further reduce our CO2 emissions.  The fitted LED lights would also produce improve the light quality in the offices and provide an improved look and feel to the office.   The proposed LED lights were also manufactured in the UK.

The work was carried out in November by our long-standing electrical services provider, who did an excellent job.