Frederick Hiam Ltdhas completed a £1.5 million solar PV installation at one of its sites in Brandon, Suffolk.

The family-owned farming and vegetable packing business installed the panels with the help of RenEnergy, one of Norfolk’s largest renewable energy provider.

Brick Kiln Farm in Brandon is home to Frederick Hiam Foods and the Brandon Onion Grader; both facilities are heavy users of electricity. The Frederick Hiam Foods Factory specialises in washing, grading, and packing a range of whole vegetable products in particular parsnips, carrots and potatoes.

The solar panels have been installed on eight different roofs at the Brandon site and RenEnergy has estimated the system to have an annual output of 637,687 kWh, which will result in a carbon saving of 329 tonnes over 12 months.

Energy is required for hydro cooling parsnips and carrots, chilling potatoes and general cold storage. The Hiam Onion complex uses energy for drying and providing cold storage for 12,000 tonnes of onions as well as grading and packing.

Clive Malpass, financial director at Frederick Hiam, said: “With ever increasing electricity costs we started looking into renewable sources several years ago, first with combined heat and power and then Pyrolysis Gasification, both of these had some way to go in terms of reliable technology on a large scale, furthermore both needed a considerable consistent fuel source which was not readily available. Solar PV on the other hand requires only a natural source, sunlight and it is free.

“We have installed 326 kW on our Frederick Hiam Foods Factory and we will use virtually 100 per cent of the generated power, there is another 235 kW on six onion stores which will use all the power generated when the stores are full of onions, when empty the power will be exported to the grid. I would like to congratulate RenEnergy and their professional team who took complete control of the project by obtaining all necessary permissions to ensure that the project was delivered on time.”

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