Representative UK manufacturer installs, with the numbers that matter to a finance director: self-consumption, annual saving and simple payback, each modelled from the site's own half-hourly meter data. Figures are representative of projects in each sector.
A ready-meals and chilled-foods producer near Leicester running blast chillers, cold stores and ovens on a 24/5 pattern across a 3,900 square metre profiled-metal roof. Half-hourly data showed a flat 320 to 360 kW daytime baseload, and a major retailer had made renewable-energy disclosure a condition of the supply contract. The finance director needed a modelled IRR before capital approval.
Outcome: 86 percent self-consumption on a flat 24/5 baseload. Funded on asset finance, EBITDA-positive from month one. Generation data fed the retailer BRCGS and CDP audit and supported a supply-contract renewal.
A sub-contract engineering firm running CNC machining, press brakes, welding bays and a large compressed-air system on a single daytime shift in a portal-frame workshop. Spiky daytime demand, an ageing three-phase supply, and net-zero flow-down from an automotive Tier-1 customer. A 2,400 square metre clear-span roof suited rail-fix PV.
Outcome: 78 percent self-consumption. Inverters specified for welding and motor-start harmonics. Supply upgrade funded inside the project envelope; renewable share reported to the customer scorecard.
An injection-moulding manufacturer supplying packaging and consumer-goods customers, running energy-hungry moulding machines and chillers on a 24/5 pattern across a 4,600 square metre trapezoidal-metal roof. The board wanted the capital compared three ways, outright, lease and PPA, before committing.
Outcome: 84 percent self-consumption. Modelled outright versus asset finance versus PPA; the board chose asset finance for balance-sheet ownership with day-one positive cash flow.
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