Greenvale gets green light after installation of solar PV panels

Greenvale, the UK’s leading supplier of fresh potatoes, has installed 210 solar photovoltaics (PV) panels at its site in Floods Ferry, Cambridgeshire.

The panels, which are positioned on the factory roofs in three grids of 70, can produce up to 50kw of electricity an hour, using sunlight to feed three power invertors on the site. Greenvale is monitoring the performance of the panels via desk top recorders which give staff real time updates on the amount of electricity being produced.

The panels have already proven to be highly effective, with the unique GreenVale Farm Fresh line now running almost entirely on renewable energy. Greenvale’s first branded offering has sold over 1.5 million bags during its first year on sale in Tesco.

Rob Phillips, Greenvale’s Operations and Project Manager at Floods Ferry said: “Greenvale is dedicated to being a sustainable business and installing solar PV panels is one of our many green initiatives. In just four weeks the panels have produced 4,890kw of energy. We will continue to monitor the performance of the panels and then hope to fit more in the next six months to produce a further 200kw on the existing roofs.”

Greenvale handles 600,000 tonnes of potatoes every year operating from three state of the art packaging facilities strategically located across the UK. It aspires to deliver high quality potatoes day in day out to its customers who include leading retailers Sainsbury’s and Tesco and key food manufacturers Birds Eye, McCain, Young’s and Bakkavör. It is one of the few fully integrated potato businesses in the UK, from breeding and growing potatoes through to packaging, distribution and marketing for the retail, wholesale and food service sectors, with a specialist food ingredients division, Swancote Foods.

Greenvale is a significant grower of potatoes in its own right, growing 70,000 tonnes of potatoes through its own growing programme where it employs cutting edge growing techniques. It also boasts the largest and most geographically diverse grower base in the UK.

Source: Greenvale