Driving a Car Dealership Towards Net Zero

Ponthir Group is a long-established, family-run motor retailer representing Renault, Dacia, Suzuki, Honda, Fiat, Abarth and Jeep across their Caerleon and Hereford sites.

By late 2022, their Hereford Renault dealership was under real energy-cost pressure. Electricity prices had climbed close to £0.73/kWh at peak, eating into already-tight dealership margins at a moment when the new car market was itself in transition. With electric vehicles increasingly shaping the dealership's future, owner Mike Jeffrey approached InspireGreen with a clear question: how do you run a business where nearly every cost is rising, the largest being energy itself? Rooftop solar was the natural answer.

Ponthir Group approached InspireGreen to design and install a Solar PV system at their Hereford Renault dealership, with the aim of reducing energy costs and offsetting the site's growing electrical demand. Our solution focused on maximising generation from the available roof space while ensuring zero disruption to day-to-day trading.

Within a week of the initial conversation, we had agreed the principal design, projected the energy yield against the site's existing bill, commissioned a structural report to confirm the roof's load-bearing capacity, and engaged National Grid as the DNO, who capped export at 10 kW, informing the final system sizing.

We installed a 29.75 kWp array on the south-facing roof. 70 Trina Vertex S 425 W panels on a Renusol Metasole mounting system, paired with a Solis 30 kW three-phase inverter. Scaffolding went up in a single working day via a local Herefordshire contractor, the install was completed in three days, and the system was commissioned seven days later - delivering a roughly 17% saving on the dealership's electricity bill and a long-term, low-maintenance asset that supports both running costs and sustainability goals.