Leading insulation products manufacturer, Xtratherm, has partnered with ESB’s Smart Energy Services to significantly reduce its carbon footprint and energy costs by installing a rooftop solar PV array at its Navan facility. The new installation will deliver around 17% of the company’s power needs using ESB’s Smart Energy Services’ €75 million fund. The fund is available to help large energy users realise tangible energy savings and make significant carbon emission reductions.
Under the agreement Xtratherm will pay for the power generated by the solar array for the next 20 years, while ESB’s Smart Energy Services manages, operates and maintains the asset for that period. And not only does Xtratherm get a supply of clean, green electricity, it also reduces its energy costs.
ESB’s solar PV offering addresses the difficulties that many organisations experience in achieving a return on such large infrastructural projects. ESB, working closely with their framework partner Grange Solar, designed a 1MW Solar PV system that would offset Xtratherm’s carbon footprint, have a minimal impact on the company’s business operations, ensure a low construction carbon footprint, deliver lower cost electricity, and pay for itself over the 20-year period of the agreement.
“We own and operate the system for 20 years,” explains ESB’s Smart Energy Services commercial contracts manager, Eoghan McMahon. “The client reduces their overall energy costs. It’s a forward-thinking project and it’s great to be supporting a company like Xtratherm.”
Xtratherm has always been mindful of its environmental impact, says managing director Barry Rafferty. “We act and invest in ways that reduce environmental harm and improve our effect on communities,” he says. “At the heart of what we do is making buildings better and more thermally efficient.
Some years ago, we formalised our response to the climate emergency with a more substantial, target-driven sustainability strategy – encompassing our business, customers, communities, and families.”
The Navan project marks a continuation of Xtratherm’s move to clean energy as a key element of its sustainability efforts. “It’s complex and involves not just our work practices but also suppliers, procurement and the communities in which we work and live, it is an exciting project that involves all members of our team,” says Barry. “We are moving to ensure all of our energy is green, also requiring suppliers to be more transparent in their raw materials usage. Our target is to be a zero-carbon operation by 2030.”
During the construction, particular attention was paid to the roof area, with a high quality health and safety procedure implemented and a permanent fall arrest system installed for the duration of the 20-year maintenance agreement. ESB will operate and maintain the asset to ensure that the Solar PV array is performing at its optimum capacity for the duration of the term.
The project will displace 882,800kwh of grid electricity with renewable electricity every year. It will also result in the elimination of the equivalent to 625,625kg of CO2 emissions per year or 12.5 million kg for the 20-year term.
A battery storage option and extra solar capacity is being scoped with ESB with a view to installation in 2022. This installation forms part of Xtratherm’s Sustainability Pledge, which is the company’s response to the global environment crisis with a substantial target driven sustainability strategy that includes their business, customers, communities and families.
To find out more about Xtratherm’s Sustainability Pledge and how they are collaborating with builders’ merchants to achieve the highest environmental performances visit www.Xtratherm.ie/sustainability
