The installation of solar panels one year ago at Wolseley UK’s national distribution centre has generated the equivalent electricity to power 522 medium usage UK homes.

The heating and plumbing merchant completed the installation of 8,000 solar panels on the roof of its Leamington Spa site in 2014, which produced 1,724,560kW of renewable energy in 12 months. This is 16% more than the company anticipated, enabling the distribution centre to reduce its demand from the grid by 27%.

John Page, site facilities manager at Wolseley UK, said: “Since its installation in Spring last year, the solar array has exceeded all of our expectations and demonstrates that adopting new technologies in renewable energy can pay dividends, both in terms of cost savings and environmental benefits.

“We have been able to reduce our energy consumption from the grid by more than a quarter, which is an achievement by anyone’s standards and we are excited to see how this continues to develop in the coming months and years.”

It is forecast the installation could generate £6.5 million over 20 years under the government’s Feed In Tariff (FIT) for commercial buildings, and achieve carbon savings of around 1280 tonnes per year.