Solar ... the solution to future proof Gopak’s energy usage

Like most British manufacturers, the importance of reducing our impact on the environment is permanently on our agenda and rightly so.

As furniture manufacturers, our day-to-day operations include the running of big hungry machines, essential for the production of our range of furniture. These machines use a huge amount of energy and unfortunately, there is no alternative method for manufacture. So our conundrum was how could we make a significant change to our operations, deliver the required environmental impact and also reduce our energy consumption.

We had recently completed the phased installation of LED lighting across our site which had made significant improvements to the quality of lighting across our factory and offices, but had made little impact on our energy consumption. What could be the next step? The idea of further optimising the roof space of our large production facility, with the installation of more solar panels was put forward for consideration. If we were unable to further reduce our energy usage, why not produce our own energy, which in turn would have the net result of energy use reduction.

With headline news of spiralling electricity prices and the reality that our own tariffs are due to double in the coming months, investment in solar has become a more and more attractive proposition. Following many months of research, grant applications and decision-making, JPS Renewable Energy were appointed to carry out the installation of 250 solar panels on our production facility. To us this sounded like a massive project, but JPS completed the installation of the panels and wiring to the grid, within three days. A remarkable feat and just in time for the long summer days and sunshine. Our energy consumption and production can now be monitored via the responsive Enphase App, which has already concentrated the minds on how we can reduce our energy consumption further and become more energy independent.

We could not be happier with the service we received from the JPS team. All JPS staff, while on-site, were extremely polite, professional and went out of their way to be helpful and cause minimum disruption to our operations. The work was carried out to a high quality and everything was left clean and tidy at the end of the installation. JPS Renewable Energy comes with our highest recommendation.