£10,000
Saved per year
13
CO2 saved per year
Tonnes
62 kWp
System capacity
The Challenge
The Buttress Group is a catering equipment business based at The Engine Shed on the Top Station Road Industrial Estate in Brackley, Northamptonshire. The estate has a history of its own: Brackley’s Great Central Railway station stood at the top of the hill, and part of the old station site is now occupied by an industrial estate.
Like any working business site, the buildings use electricity through the day, and every unit came from the grid at commercial rates. Buttress wanted to cut that cost and reduce its carbon footprint, using roof space that was already there.
The Solution
Eden Sustainable designed and delivered a 62 kWp rooftop solar PV system split across two buildings on the site. Buttress funded the project itself as a capital investment, so it owns both arrays outright and keeps every pound of saving they produce.
The two roofs needed different approaches. The first, a pitched corrugated roof, carries a 30 kWp array feeding a single Solis 40kW inverter. The second, a pitched trapezoidal roof, carries 32 kWp across two Solis 25kW inverters. Designing each array around its own roof, rather than forcing one solution onto both, let Eden make the most of the space available. Eden also managed the planning application, the grid connection with National Grid Electricity Distribution and all compliance. The system has been generating since November 2022.
The Outcome
The system now saves Buttress Group around £10,000 a year on electricity and avoids 13 tonnes of CO₂ annually. For a 62 kWp system, that’s a strong return. It shows that solar doesn’t need a vast warehouse roof to pay its way, just a well-matched design on the roofs a business already has.
Because the system is self-funded, none of the saving goes to a funder, and every unit generated on site is protected from future rises in grid prices.