A BAKERY has turned to the power of the sun to save energy costs while reducing its impact on the environment.

Henllan Bakery runs two facilities on Colomendy Industrial Estate, Denbigh, where it has set up an array of solar panels because it is simply “good business sense”.

The company, which supplies bread to North Wales’s hospitals, has 111 solar panels on the roof of their bread-making unit while, across the road, 44 panels top the new cake-making facility.

They were by installed the bakery’s Colomendy neighbours, green energy specialists Hafod Renewables, along with twin systems which produce almost 40,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year - enough to power 10 family homes.

According to Hafod Renewables managing director David Jones, the double system, which costs £30,000, will pay for itself through the feed-in tariff in just five years.

Denbighshire Free Press: Hafod Renewable Energy director David Jones and Henllan Bakery production manager Tom Moore inside the bakery's cake-making unit. Picture: Mandy JonesHafod Renewable Energy director David Jones and Henllan Bakery production manager Tom Moore inside the bakery's cake-making unit. Picture: Mandy Jones

He said: “With the onsite savings of £4,000 a year and because the bakery was in time to take advantage of the feed-in tariff of over £1,500 annually, their system will pay for itself in five years. It’s also saving 32 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually and that’s equivalent to planting 100 trees a year.”

Mr Jones said he has worked with customers across North, Mid Wales and the border counties - unsurprisingly the bakery was the smallest distance they had to travel for a job.

“It was literally a case of taking the panels out of the back door of our premises and we were there,” he said.

“Solar power does make a lot of sense for businesses like the bakery which have a huge roof area.”

Henllan Bakery’s ovens are oil-fired but all the mixers, machines and conveyor belts are electric.

The family firm was established in 1908 but it has been on its current site since 1975. It opened the cake bakery in January, creating 20 jobs.

“The cake and biscuit bakery has gone very well and the solar panels were just the finishing touch," Tom Moore, production director said. "But we want to go greener and see this as just the first phase over the next two years.

“We are investing money in renewables because we are expanding the business and the energy bills are going up and up. It makes good business sense.”

For more information visit Hafod Renewables' or Henllan Bakery's website.