Solar power brings SVA closer to becoming a carbon neutral business

By Matt de Prez

31 October 2022

Shoreham Vehicle Auctions (SVA) has switched on its 135 solar panels, bringing the business a step closer to achieving carbon neutrality.

The panels, installed by MHE, produce 50kW of energy and will provide electricity to the entire site as well as power its new electric vehicle (EV) chargers.

Alex Wright, SVA’s managing director, said: “This is another milestone in our bid to become carbon neutral and they would have gone live a little sooner if we had not of been held up by component delays. We are based on the south coast so benefit from lots of sunshine, so it seemed a practical solution, even if we did have to invest in a brand-new roof to cope with the addition weight of the panels.”

The auction business has installed a bank of 15 Wallbox chargers to power the growing number of EVs being sold at auction and its own company vehicle fleet.

Some 90% of SVA’s company car and minibus fleet are now electric and the chargers will also cater for the growing number of vendors and buyers visiting the site with electric cars.

The company’s net zero emissions strategy was launched earlier this year, alongside a new health and wellbeing strategy for its employees.

SVA has been rewarded for its continued focus on making its business more sustainable by being presented with the ISO 14001 environmental management certification. It has been instrumental in SVA setting up an effective environmental management system and alongside ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 is helping it deliver a range of business efficiencies for its team and data security for customers.

Wright added: “ISO has helped us modernise our business systems and now we are punching well above our weight now in the remarketing sector. We have combined exceptional customer service with the business processes demanded of our larger vendor clients.”

Car retailers have been told that the only way they can avoid rising energy costs resulting from the war in Ukraine is to go “off grid”, using technology such as solar.

Soaring energy prices were already hitting businesses hard prior to the lifting of Government energy price caps earlier this year and are set to get worse into 2023.