In November 2024, Poplars installed 1038 solar panels on to the existing curved rooves. The system is capable of generating a huge amount of pure, clean energy – as long as the sun shines!

The garden centre typically uses around 40,000kWh of energy each month, of which 4,000kWh is used at night. Energy that is not used or stored by the garden centre is sent to the grid – this is known as energy export,

Our forecast shows we will generate in excess of 350,000kWh per year from the solar panels. Of this, we use 21,000kWh and export 140,000kWh for local households and businesses to use.

Over the life of the system, we expect to not only make some financial savings but also have a very positive effect on the environment, saving over 100 tons of CO2 each year.