Northern Signcases Ltd and Plastics Direct Ltd share a headquarters on the Vulcan Business Park in Oldham. The former specialises in signcases, flexfaces and fabric face signs and has serviced the UK sign trade since 1992.
Plastics Direct Ltd, meanwhile, was established in 1989 and is a leading plastic sheet supplier, specialising in off the shelf and bespoke fabricated items for use in signs, cladding, construction, glazing and many other industries. They have a simple ethos: provide an outstanding service and top-quality products while problem solving with a positive “can do” attitude.
That is an ethos shared by Thomas Halliwell Ltd – so it’s little surprise that, when Northern Signcases and Plastics Direct were looking for a first-class solar PV system to meet their energy needs, they decided to work with us.
We installed a 120 solar panel system and a new AshGrid roof system on their headquarters at the Vulcan Business Park in Derker following a thorough and successful two-year project.
After the client first approached us, we used our experience and expertise to understand the complexity of the job and identified the solar specifications to meet their electricity requirements.
We designed a solar PV system that met these requirements and made the necessary applications to the District Network Operator – in this case Electricity North West – for their permission to connect to the electricity network.
We then discovered that the trapezoidal metal roof on their building was in an unsuitable condition for having a solar PV system mounted on to it – so we engaged the structural specialist T J Booth Associates to identify the best way forward and then brought in construction firm RPMG to install 1,800m2 of new roof.
We erected scaffolding and set up edge protection around the perimeter of the building. Once the new roof was in place, we then installed the solar PV system – including 120 LONGi 570W solar panels supplied by the wholesaler Waxman Energy, fixed onto a K2 mounting system – along with the trunking and containment from the arrays down to the distribution board.
For this job, we overcame a distribution board compatibility issue by installing two Solis 20kW inverters – rather than one larger one –supplied by the wholesaler Segen. This eliminated the disruption and cost of replacing the distribution board. The inverters were needed to convert the Direct Current (DC) electricity the panels produce into Alternating Current (AC) for use in the businesses.
We were delighted to be able to test, commission and hand over the system to the client in March 2024.
Andy Barrow, our Renewables Operations Director, said: “Solar PV systems are becoming more and more popular with forward-thinking businesses who have realised it is an investment with a fantastic long-term return and a relatively short payback period – and we were thrilled to have installed one for Northern Signcases Ltd and Plastics Direct Ltd with the high levels of professionalism, quality and attention to detail that customers have come to expect from Thomas Halliwell Ltd.”
Alison Shore, project coordinator on behalf of the client, said: “We’re thrilled with our new solar PV system, as the clean energy it produces will benefit the environment, while we save money on our electricity bills. We are very grateful to Thomas Halliwell and their engineers for the fantastic job they did.
“They displayed meticulous workmanship and outstanding customer service throughout – providing us with years of support from our first inquiry to handing over the system to us. We are also delighted they helped identify issues with our old roof and organised the installation of a new one and guttering – so we have peace of mind that our new solar PV system is mounted on a roof that will last for many years to come.”