Features Business Sustainability
Brett Martin invests in solar energy project

Brett Martin, a U.K.-based manufacturer of polycarbonate, foam pvc and PETg plastic sheets for the signage and graphics industry, looks to benefit from a combination of renewable supply sources.

The company has announced it is now procuring renewable electricity from a solar installation funded and developed by Lightsource BP. Combined with the energy supplied by Brett Martin’s onsite wind turbine, the company now receives 25 percent of its energy requirements from renewable sources.

Lightsource BP financed, completed and now operates the 6.42MWp (megawatts-peak) solar installation near Belfast, which is hard-wired directly into Brett Martin’s facility just over a mile away.

The solar installation has an output power capacity of 6.42MWp, which it says is enough clean solar energy to power the equivalent of over 1,600 homes, providing approximately 14 percent of the centre’s annual electricity demand. The solar installation, built on over 35 acres of locally-owned farmland, provides an estimated saving of 2,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year.

“Our core activity of processing plastics is very energy intensive and with energy costs in Northern Ireland at around 25 percent more than the European average, initiatives like this are critical to help us maintain our competitive edge in a global marketplace where 50 percent of our sales are exported,” says Laurence Martin, Managing Director at Brett Martin. “We were one of the first local manufacturers to install a wind turbine in 2011, now delivering 11 percent of our energy costs. The partnership with Lightsource now more than doubles our renewable footprint and also highlights our commitment to environmentally sensitive manufacturing practice.”