£10,000
Saved per year
49
CO2 saved per year
Tonnes
125 kWp
System capacity
The Challenge
N&R Needham is a precision machining company in Clay Cross, Chesterfield, specialising in CNC turning and milling. Established in 1972, it has more than forty years of experience in engineering services across the UK. It works from the Bridge Street Industrial Estate, on land with its own industrial history: the old Clay Cross and Egstow station, terminus of the Ashover Light Railway, was demolished after it closed in 1950, and the site is now occupied by a road called Bridge Street.
CNC machining runs on electricity, from the machines themselves to compressors, lighting and extraction, through every working day. As a family-run engineering business, N&R Needham wanted to bring down one of its biggest overheads and cut the carbon behind the parts it makes, using the roof space it already had.
The Solution
Eden Sustainable designed and installed a 125 kWp rooftop solar PV system on the workshop’s pitched metal roof, made up of 272 high-efficiency 460W panels feeding a single Solis 100kW inverter. N&R Needham funded the project itself as a capital investment, so it owns the system outright and keeps every pound of saving it produces.
Eden managed the full project, from design and the grid connection with National Grid Electricity Distribution to installation and commissioning, with the work planned around a machine shop that kept running. The system has been generating since 2023.
The Outcome
The system now saves N&R Needham around £10,000 a year on electricity and avoids 49 tonnes of CO₂ annually. For a precision engineering firm, that’s a lower cost base on every job, and a measurable carbon reduction to share with customers who are asking more questions about their supply chains.
Because the system is self-funded, every unit generated on the roof is protected from future rises in grid prices.