The Challenge

voestalpine Rotec is a group of companies that specialise in the production, further processing and sales of precision steel tube products. Rotec UK, based in Hinckley, offer complete tubular solutions to the automotive industry, with products ranging from simple bush tubes to complex assembled parts.

Their extensive knowledge of tube processing and manipulation allows them to support their customers from the design and development stage of a project through to high volume production, utilising the latest technology and manufacturing methods. Long-term partnerships, high quality standards and a drive for innovation make them the top professional partner for automotive tube applications.

With a very high energy usage from their manufacturing process, voestalpine needed to reduce the volume of electricity they purchase from the Grid, as well as reduce their carbon footprint in line with their environmental policies without any Capital Expenditure.

The Solution

A solar array of 1323 solar panels mounted on the large roof tops of their premises in Hinckley. Spread across their main offices, warehousing and manufacturing buildings to produce an overall array size of 337.5kWh. This system is expected to generate in excess of 285,000kWh’s a year.

A Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) has been set up that allows voestalpine to purchase the generated electricity by the Solar PV System at a lower cost than purchasing an equivalent amount of electricity from the Grid, whilst gaining full benefits from the carbon emission savings.

The Result

The solar panels are now powering all the facilities and voestalpine are benefiting from a saving in excess of £8,000 per annum on their fuel bills and a reduction in excess of 150 tonnes on their carbon footprint.