Member Article

A big step towards a smaller footprint for Blackburn dealership with assistance from local biomass manufacturer

Blackburn’s Volkswagon dealership, part of leading UK automotive retailer and distributor Lookers plc, has installed the UK’s first small-scale biomass heating and cooling system, manufactured by local company BS Holdings, in a bid to save over £40,000 a year on energy consumption and outgoings.

The long-established car dealership has made the move to renewable technology in a bid to reduce its impact on the environment in which they operate, and to allow for additional focus on continuing their commitment to providing the highest quality customer care and after-sales service, for which they are renowned in the area.

Partnering with local heating engineering specialists BS Holdings, an innovative biomass system providing comprehensive heating, cooling and water services for the sales, after-sales and bodywork buildings, will utilise sustainable wood pellets and provide a substantial improvement on efficiency from the previous heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems throughout the dealership. Lookers’ Blackburn VW is now home to the UK’s first-ever car spray-bake oven system to run on renewable fuel-source biomass.

Running costs for heat and cool-air systems across the complex have depleted in their entirety, allowing for 354 tons of greenhouse gases to be removed on an annual basis, and for VW Blackburn to become the first carbon-neutral dealership in England.

Bill Henry, Energy Manager, Lookers, said: “As a dealership, it is a core focus to reduce our impact on the environment and the introduction of this pioneering system has allowed us to significantly minimize the carbon footprint an operation of this size would have.

“Working with BS Holdings has also allowed us to apply for Ofgem accreditation to the government’s RHI scheme, allowing for the cost of heating and cooling our buildings to be nil annually, while increasing our profitability in a sustainable manner to £40,100 per annum at present market energy costs.”

BS Holding’s sister company Sheridan & Hood undertook the complete refit of Blackburn Volkswagon’s HVAC system in a live environment to ensure that the dealership remained operational throughout the implementation, with minimal disruption to the essential activity across the departments.

Brian Hood, Director, BS Holdings, said: “We are delighted that our system is installed and running efficiently at the first England based Lookers Plc site, resulting in the UK’s first-ever car spray-bake oven system to run on renewable fuel-source biomass . Our focus for 2015 has been on growing our footprint outside of Northern Ireland and this project is just the first of many to come.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ursula .