Greener Solutions: Changing Mindsets and Acting Now

With the promotion of our battery (energy) storage units as part of our Greener Solutions campaign, we wanted to address these fears head on and look at what our campaign and the products that we’re promoting are doing to help our environment.

We’re not claiming that these new products will revolutionise climate change efforts. But what we are doing is investing in technology that’s available now, to allow us to begin to act now. With our battery storage units, we’re looking to provide the most economically, commercially viable solution to help you and your company go greener.

We’ve delved deeper into our greener solutions and the campaign headlines to offer a little more insight on how these solutions can help you and your company go green now…

How do Energy Storage Units reduce emissions?

Energy storage units are in fact a large battery, designed to store lots of energy and discharge it when needed. They can be used in many ways, but most commonly are installed alongside a generator. We simply can’t get away from the fact that right now generators are a key source of temporary power and are essential in keeping thousands of services running. However, by introducing battery (energy) storage units, we’re able to turn off that generator as much as possible, and provide the power needed to run that service or site. The battery is charged by the generator (which can be run on HVO fuel, a fossil-free fuel), and whenever possible it turns off the generator, taking over the power requirements and delivering silent, emission free power, consequently reducing noise pollution. We’re continually seeing battery storage units turn off generators at least 50% of the time: that’s 50% fewer emissions and fuel consumption than if we were relying solely on a generator.

Therefore, we’re not claiming that our battery storage units directly reduce emissions. But when combined with existing technology (such as generators), what they do achieve is the ability to lower emissions and offer a viable solution to moving away from products which are traditionally high producers of carbon emissions.

How does reducing emissions help nature flourish?

As outlined above, our battery (energy) storage units are accelerating the move away from carbon emissions: helping to fight global warming, which in turn is linked to a huge increase in loss of habitat. Think about the recent forest fires in Greece, or even poisonous algae bloom, which thrive off higher greenhouse gas emissions. By promoting and investing in technology such as our battery (energy) storage units, we are encouraging a move away from these products that pose a real threat to the environment. Sadly, we are still met with challenges (such as a loss of red squirrels due to competition over food and shelter with larger grey squirrels), but by accelerating a move away from emissions, we are still contributing to our overall aim of emission reduction.

Every reduction in emissions counts in the fight against global warming: we want to play our part too.

How is this technology carbon neutral?

Carbon neutrality is an issue many ‘greener’ companies are currently facing, and one that we have faced ourselves in the past. The main point to raise here is that we are not claiming to be carbon neutral. The whole point of our Greener Solutions campaign is to help reduce carbon emissions and to improve on existing technologies. Picture a normal diesel generator – they have no electricity storage capabilities. Our battery (energy) storage units are an improvement on existing technology and are working to reduce the carbon footprint of technology like diesel fuelled generators, by making way for products which can be connected to mains power and run fully electrically.

What is an energy storage unit? Is it just a big box run on diesel?

Many may be questioning what exactly is an energy or battery storage unit? That’s where we’re here to help.

Our energy or battery storage units are essentially a more sustainable way of working. As outlined above, they can be charged by mains power before they leave a depot, and then deployed to locations where mains power is simply not available. Think about our squirrel animation video – much like how squirrels store energy for when it’s needed, our battery storage units do the same. Their main aim is to turn off a generator as much as possible and provide silent, emission free power. They turn what would normally be a completely fuel powered energy solution into a hybrid one. Just as self-charging hybrid cars use battery technology to turn off the engine, a battery storage unit works in conjunction with the generator. You can find them on festivals, building sites and providing power to critical services such as hospitals, and data centres.

How is sustainable equipment transported?

Another worry is around the way in which these products are transported. Aren’t we counteracting any greener efforts by later transporting these products in vehicles which release high levels of emissions?

In recent years, we have invested over £20m in our vehicle fleet to combat this issue. As electric or hydrogen powered vehicles aren’t available for larger vehicles at present, we’ve ensured that our current vehicle fleet comprises of 382 HGVs (88.25% already Euro 6 compliant) and 1,382 LCVs, (93.07% already Euro 6 compliant), meaning that we are well underway with our planned transport replacement plan, with the end goal of having an entirely Euro 6 complaint fleet.

With 200 depots across the UK, we are also able to consolidate our deliveries wherever possible, ensuring that equipment is travelling a much shorter distance. For many customers we’re a sole supplier, so are able to transport a variety of products in one delivery: again, working to reduce transport time and emissions released from larger vehicles.

Act now

Through investing in new technology, we’re making greener solutions available to all of our customers and acting now. We’re facilitating the ability to cut your generator size by half, to invest in silent power, to conserve energy, to champion the most economically, commercially viable solution to help your company go greener. We’re changing mindsets of how to approach temporary power.

Speak to our team about switching to greener solutions today and leave the how to us.