£38,000
Saved per year
47
CO2 saved per year
Tonnes
248 kWp
System capacity
The Challenge
ESSE has been manufacturing some of the world's most respected range cookers and cooking stoves from their Barnoldswick factory in Lancashire since 1854. It is a business with heritage, craft, and a product line that demands serious manufacturing energy. Precision metalwork, casting, finishing, and quality testing run continuously across a large industrial floor. That means electricity consumption is high, consistent, and unavoidable.
What had changed was the cost. Like most UK manufacturers, ESSE had watched energy bills climb year after year. The business had a substantial roof footprint and strong daytime generation potential, but no on-site renewable generation to offset the draw from the grid. Every kilowatt-hour came at full market rate.
The question was no longer whether solar made sense. It was who to trust with the project.
The Solution
Eden Sustainable designed and installed a 248 kilowatt peak (kWp) rooftop solar photovoltaic system at ESSE's Barnoldswick manufacturing site. This was a capital expenditure project, funded directly by ESSE as part of a wider investment in long-term operational sustainability.
Before a single panel went up, Eden's team completed a full structural survey of the roof, detailed consumption modelling against ESSE's actual half-hourly energy data, and an accurate forecast of generation output, savings, and carbon reduction. The system was designed to maximise the available roof area and orient generation output to match ESSE's manufacturing load profile as closely as possible.
DNO application, grid connection compliance, structural sign-off, and all regulatory requirements were managed entirely by Eden. ESSE's manufacturing operations continued without interruption throughout the installation.
The Outcome
The system now generates clean electricity from ESSE's own rooftop, directly displacing grid imports across the working day. The numbers are unambiguous.
ESSE now saves £38,000 in electricity costs every year. The installation offsets 47 tonnes of CO2 annually — and over the 25-year lifetime of the system, the projected financial benefit runs well into seven figures.
For a business that has been making things well for over 170 years, the solar installation is a statement of intent. ESSE's commitment to craft and quality now extends to how the factory is powered.