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I will be the first person to put my hand up and say I am no expert in power generation, environmental consultancy or finance, but there is something very satisfying about knowing your solar panels are crackling into life at 4.50 am in the morning.
We have a 99.6 kWp system on our factory roof. The install was done at the same time our roof was replaced with a modern insulated roof replacing a corrugated asbestos tiles. The size was limited to the local grid’s capacity in our road. Above 100kW, there was a jump in cable sizes at several locations, making the return on investment less attractive. That said the 100kW system covers a lot of our demand and covers the majority of our roof.

We are a small Engineering business in Andover that runs a number power hungry CNC machines. Prior to the system going into service we paid around £2,000 per month for our electricity. This has on average halved clearly indicating the payback opportunity for this investment.

Where it works for our business is that we use all the power we generate, so we do not need to rely on the subsidised feed in tariffs to make the system viable. Our system when live as the feed in tariffs expired so our exported power is purchased at only 3 to 4p per kWh. Not having to pay for the power, effectively makes the rate 13.5p per kWh making the investment much more attractive, while only receiving the low rate at the weekend when not in use. With an initial investment of £70k, this project looks to have paid for itself within 5 years. I am sure that with subsidies on feed in tariffs that early investors got an even faster return, we are quite happy with what we have achieved. With a 20 year minimum life on the system it was an easy decision to make.

Moving on from a purely financial investment as a family run business, and personally as a father of 3, I feel it is right to do our best to protect the environment. As an industry perceived as dirty and energy hungry it is nice to move away from that image before we are forced by our customers or legally mandated to do so by the government.

The software that comes with the system gives you feed back on how the system is performing. A sunny May produced over 15MWh of power. With days over 600kWh covering all our energy needs.

We have fitted an Electric Vehicle charging point on the side of the factory, which we allow free charging during daylight ours for employees and customers. This has seen little use to date, but it is important to look forward to the needs in the future.

The final feature that makes me smile is a little icon that tell me the CO2 reduction and equivalent trees planted. I know this is somewhat of a gimmick, but it makes easier to rationalise as a non-expert what you are doing for the environment. It is difficult to relate to what 128 tonnes of CO2 equates to. Having had the system logging data for just under a year now, we are running at the environmental SI unit of around 1 tree per day.

The Bowyer Engineering PV system:
272 x JA Solar 72 cell photovoltaic panels
4 x Solis 25K 3 phase Inverters

Since purchasing the Matsuura MX520 5 Axis machining centre Bowyer Engineering has been working closely with Matsuura UK. The collaboration was recently rewarded by a visit from Mr Katsu Matsuura who is the president of the Matsuura Machinery Corporation in Japan. The visit was arranged by Mark Cumberland (Matsuura UK Sales Representative).
A factory tour was conducted by James Bowyer (Managing Director) after which a discussion took place on future machine tool investments.

Investment in a Lang ‘Zero Point’ fixturing system has further enhanced the new machines flexibility when servicing prototype requirements and small batch production runs.

Cardiomyopathy is a heart muscle disease that affects 1 in 500 of the population and is the most common medical cause of sudden death in under 35 year olds. In March last year I was diagnosed with Left Ventricular non-compaction (LVNC), a rare type of heart muscle disease which has no known cure. Cardiomyopathy UK are an incredible charity that work on educating medical professionals about the disease and provide knowledge and support to patients and their families. The charity has been invaluable to me since my diagnosis, and by raising funds for them we’ll be able to continue their incredible hard work and support newly diagnosed patients when they’re at their most vulnerable.

I had been blacking out regularly, which increased as I got older, and eventually I was sent for tests which led to my diagnosis of LVNC last year. In April 2014, shortly after my 20th birthday, I had an ICD fitted. It is a small device which sits under my chest muscle with a small wire leading into my heart. The device acts as both a pacemaker and a defibrillator, with the capability of providing a shock four times stronger than that of a household plug socket.

Cardiomyopathy UK (http://www.cardiomyopathy.org) have been incredible over the past year. They have provided me with the information and support I needed at an incredibly delicate time for both me and my family, and helped us to remain positive. They have put me in touch with patients similar to me, provided a source of endless knowledge, and they have provided a helpline where patients are able to speak to a specialist nurse. They also strive to increase knowledge of Cardiomyopathy in the medical world, so that patients are tested for conditions like this sooner when reporting symptoms related to that of the condition, helping to save lives.

Cardiomyopathy UK are a truly amazing charity, who rely on public donations to enable them to spread the word and educate about heart muscle disease, but also to provide support an information to patients and their families. Without our donations newly diagnosed patients, like myself, would not receive the support they need at a terrifying, life-changing time of their lives.

On the 3rd of April I will be abseiling Spinnaker Tower to raise money for Cardiomyopathy UK, so that they can continue to raise awareness and provide much needed support to patients, families and their friends. To make a donation please follow the link to my just-giving page below.