Holden Group
Car dealership invests £500,000 in solar panels
Payback in 3.6 years with total carbon savings of 1,205 metric tonnes
Case study
SaveMoneyCutCarbon designed and installed a 992-solar panel system with inverters and optimisers.
Holden group invested £500,000 in the project, with a payback of 3.6 years. The project results in savings of £1,750,000 projected over 25 years, and total carbon
Savings of 1,205 metric tonnes over the same period.
The Client
Holden Group is a family-owned network of car dealerships, looking after customers since 1928. They represent the Kia, Volvo, Honda, Renault, Dacia and MG brands in Norwich and surrounding Norfolk areas.
The company has a trusted reputation for being knowledgeable and offering an honest and enjoyable experience. It offers new, nearly new and approved used cars and vans for sale to private and business clients. It also provides affordable servicing, repairs and maintenance from its Norwich and Kings Lynn sites.
The Brief
The showroom sites consume 586,768kWh of electricity annually in total and Holden Group aimed to make a significant investment for the business to demonstrate a commitment to sustainable energy use and reducing CO2 emissions.
The company was aware that all of the brands it represents were heavily invested in EV technology and that cutting carbon was also important to its customers. It wanted to ensure that it was investing in its facilities to match the expectations of franchise partners, colleagues and customers.
Working closely with SaveMoneyCutCarbon director and co-founder Charlie Farr, the Holden Group explored the potential solutions for carbon reductions and energy savings across its properties.
The Solution
Holden Group invested more than £500,000 in a rooftop solar panel installation at its showroom sites.
Following desktop and detailed site surveys, the SaveMoneyCutCarbon team installed 992 panels in a roof-mounted system, optimised for greatest yield, maximum generation, monitoring and ROI, as opposed to a standard string system. All installed products and services are Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) approved.
The selected monocrystalline PV modules offer the highest efficiency cells and lower degradation rates. They are made from a single piece of silicon, making it easier for electricity to flow through. They have a pyramid cell pattern which offers a larger surface area, enabling the panels to collect a greater amount of energy from the sun’s rays.
The system also benefits from Solar Edge inverters with optimisers behind each panel. All inverters are ready to be connected to batteries in the future in order to maximise on self-consumption during the night. They also have the capability to limit export to the grid to zero.
This project was completed in November 2023.
Savings over the next 25 years £1,750,000 approx
Carbon savings over 25 years 1,205 metric tonnes