Putting a net-zero plan on the roof at Dudley's Aluminium

Dudley's Aluminium design, manufacture and install curtain walling, windows, doors and facades from their Cardiff base, working with main contractors on large commercial and public buildings across the UK. It is a sector they describe themselves as energy-intensive, and they have been open about wanting to change that.

Their own commitments set the direction. They buy glazing profiles with a minimum of 80% recycled aluminium content, they have built a carbon reduction plan off a measured baseline, and they are working towards net zero by 2050. Generating their own electricity on site was the logical next step, and the factory roof was the obvious place to start.

A busy production floor makes for a steady, predictable electricity demand, which is exactly the load profile solar suits best. Most of what the roof produces is used on site the moment it is generated rather than exported, so the system earns its full value rather than selling power back cheaply.

The roof gave us several pitches at different angles, so we split the array across four orientations to make the most of the available space. We used 192 AIKO 465W panels with SolarEdge optimisers feeding a single SE66.6K Synergy Manager inverter. The optimisers keep panels working to their potential rather than being held back by the weakest in a string, which matters on a multi-pitch roof like this, and they give panel-level monitoring for the life of the system. The result is an 89.28 kWp system generating around 89.71 MWh a year and meeting 46% of the site's electricity from its own roof.