Reflex Glass invests ￡300K in photovoltaic factory roof

Leicester based Reflex Glass replaced the roof on its main manufacturing site in Leicester with a state-of-the-art composite roof system, taking the opportunity to have all the rooflights glazed into the north slopes. This freed up the south facing slopes of the factory roof for photovoltaic panel installation which the company subcontracted out via its new venture Reflex Energy Ltd., according to aMarch 23 release.

With more than 500 PV modules now installed on the companies roof, the solar panels have already generated a staggering 8 Mega Watts of free clean electricity since the start of this year. Reflex says it expects to save around ￡10,000 in electricity and earn around ￡31,000 in government feed in tariff payments every year.Excess electricity is now fed back to the grid for additional profit.

“We believe we are now the greenest glass company in the industry,”said Scott Nicholas, managing director of Reflex Glass, in the release.“Investing in the roof allowed us to create more energy than we need on sunny days giving us enviable green credentials as well as a healthy 15 percentreturn on investment every year for the next 25 years.”

Reflex calculates that with an annual average inflation of 3 percentand electricity rises of 5 percentthe company will average a saving plus tariff income of around ￡67K every year over the 25 year period to give an average return on the initial investment of 22 percent.

Visitors to Reflex Glass can see how the solar panels are performing with a smart energy meter in the reception area which gives a read out of the total power currently being generated, the total generated to date and the CO2 saving in tons.So far the company has saved more than 4 tons of CO2 using the clean electricity generated from the solar panels to power its glass production lines.With glass washers using plenty of electricity to heat and pump the water along with hot melt machines and compressors the companies energy needs are now being met with the solar panels, according to the release.