15/09/2022
Further Down the Net Zero Road
With the energy crisis still continuing, with unit rates being as high as £0.70 per kilowatt, many companies with high energy usage, like plastic injection moulding companies, are focusing on how to become more energy efficient, and at Bowles and Walker Ltd, we are doing the same.
At Bowles and Walker Ltd have been investigating further ways for us to reach our net zero ambitions. It was decided that our next project going forwards should be to utilise micro wind turbines to generate additional energy onsite alongside our solar arrays. We applied for the Energy Scheme Grant, administered by Peterborough Environment City Trust (PECT), and managed to secure the grant at the beginning of September.
We anticipate the completion of the wind turbine project by the end of November, where we will have installed 6 micro wind turbines across the back roof section of our site in Watton. If this then proves to be a success, further work will be carried out to expand the project with the aim to bring more turbines online. We anticipate that this initial project will save more than 12,000 kWh per year, equating to a reduction of over 3T of CO2e per annum.
Additional plans for 2023/24 include entering the competition for the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF). If successful, this will allow us to modernise several of our core plastic injection moulding machines with more energy efficient models. This would reduce our standard energy consumption by approximately 36,000 kWh per year, saving another 9T of CO2e per annum.
Therefore, over the next 2 years Bowles and Walker Ltd should increase our onsite energy generation capacity, and also significantly reduce our energy and carbon emissions. These achievements will provide an even more solid foundation to continue our energy efficiency and carbon reduction policies setting us in good stead for being a carbon neutral company before 2040.
