Lombard Shipping, a domestic and international logistics provider, plans to cut electricity costs by around 50% at its Ipswich logistics hub after installing a combined solar, battery storage, and EV charging setup.
The site, near the Port of Felixstowe, is the company’s headquarters and largest of five locations. The project follows the introduction of two electric HGVs, which increased onsite energy demand.
The SolarEdge installation, from the provider of smart energy technology, is expected to generate about 118MWh of electricity annually. Lombard Shipping estimates savings of around £1 million over 20 years, with a payback period of roughly 5.3 years.
Peter Fraser, Director at Lombard Shipping, says, “Rising energy demand across our operations made it essential for us to take a more strategic approach to managing our power use.
“With our EV chargers alone consuming around 7MWh of electricity each month, we needed a solution that could maximise clean energy generation on site and ensure it is used as efficiently as possible – and this system delivers exactly that.”
Integrated onsite energy management
Installer Insight Energy deployed rooftop solar panels, battery storage, and six EV chargers managed through a single control platform coordinating generation, storage, and charging.
The system allows approximately 83% of generated solar electricity to be used onsite.
Excess energy can be stored in the battery or used to charge fleet vehicles depending on schedules, solar forecasts, and electricity pricing.
Kristian Day, Managing Director at Insight Energy, says, “By leveraging SolarEdge’s unified technology platform, we have delivered a smart, scalable clean energy solution that enables Lombard Shipping to use almost all of the energy generated on site, which is a key factor in achieving a rapid return on investment.”
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