Christmas has come early for Thomas Leach Colour, an Abingdon, Oxfordshire-based printing firm with more than 100 years of heritage, and the latest company to sign up to the new funding of up to £1billion for solar announced by Electron Green. The installation started on 11 December 2023, will cut Thomas Leach’s electricity grid usage by about 45% and is projected to save the firm £400,000 over 35 years.
Christmas print will now have a solar flavour including over 50,000 Christmas cards which Thomas Leach Colour produces every year for business and charities. But they – like its brochures, vehicle graphics and other product lines – are hugely energy intensive to produce, and the printing industry together with paper, pulp and publishing is now the UKs fourth largest industrial sector.
The installation:
On Monday 11 December, Electron Green’s contractors started installing 117 rooftop solar panels on Thomas Leach Colour’s facilities on the edge of Abingdon. The 58.7 kWp panels cover 280m² of roof space and are enough to power 17 three-bedroom homes.
Electron Green covers all costs related to the installation and maintain the panels. Thomas Leach simply pays for the solar electricity supplied from the panels, at a lower cost than they would be paying for Grid electricity. The solar electricity rate is fixed, so savings will increase over time. At the end of 25 years, Electron Green will give the solar system free of charge to Thomas Leach Colour. This agreement gives some certainty over future energy bills, and helps to fulfil the company’s plans to green its business.
Projected benefits to Thomas Leach Colour:
• Savings on energy bills: £2,900 in the first year, rising annually, and up to £400,000 over 35 years
• Reduction of electricity grid use: 45%
• Carbon savings: 357 tonnes (or 5,903 trees planted) in 25 years
Electron Green’s funding of up to £1 billion:
Leading solar developer, Electron Green, works with businesses to assess their commercial rooftops for solar, calculate cost savings, install and maintain the panels at no cost to the business hosting them, and supply low-cost solar electricity. Electron Green launched the funding to support UK businesses at a time when energy bills are escalating – and UK electricity usage is projected to increase by 56% over 2020 to 2036[i].
2023 Research by the UCL Energy Institute for the CPRE, the countryside charity, showed that retrofitting solar to non-domestic rooftops in England alone could meet over half the UK’s solar target for 2035.
Neil Stratford, Managing Director, Thomas Leach Colour says: “The print and media sector is energy intensive, especially in preparation for Christmas. That means high carbon emissions and – in the current environment – high energy costs. Solar is an easy retro-fit and the impact is immediate. Putting 280m² of solar panels on our factory roof will go a very long way to reducing our carbon emissions and the fixed electricity price gives us valuable long-term financial certainty.”
Daniel Green, CEO and Co-Founder of Electron Green, adds: “Britain’s great regional businesses tell us time and again they want more certainty over future energy bills. They also want off-the-shelf solar packages that help reduce emissions. Thomas Leach Colour is a prime example of a vibrant company requiring more certainty in an unpredictable world.
“We aim to give UK businesses more flexibility about how they manage and pay for electricity. Everyone is going to be using more electricity – half as much again over the next decade according to recent analysis – and businesses need the confidence there is the capacity to match greater demand, and flexibility about how they can pay for it. We’re here, with our £1 bn fund, to solve this problem.”
