A top timber company has teamed up with a renewable energy specialist to sell the world’s first commercially produced timber solar panel frames.

The ground-breaking system means that solar power just got greener according to Ruthin-based Clifford Jones Timber.

Now the company have called in green energy specialists Carbon Zero Renewables as global distributors of the new frame which is cheaper to make than conventional galvanised steel, lighter, lasts just as long and has a much smaller carbon footprint.

In fact Clifford Jones Timber have taken the product to an even more environmentally friendly level by promising to take back the frames after 25 years to turn them into biomass fuel.

They currently make 2.5 million timber fence posts annually and some of those will now support the new timber frames they can mass produce at their Brickfield Lane base near Ruthin.

The treated fence posts will have a 25-year guaranteed life span and can be installed using conventional farm post-knocking equipment with no need for concreting.

The Ruthin-based company have developed its TimberSol range of wooden frames for solar panels, can also make them in laminated form at their own laminating plant at Ruthin and estimate they could be worth millions of pounds and there is already strong interest from the solar energy industry.

Gareth Jones, of St Asaph company Carbon Zero Renewables, said: “This has the potential to revolutionise the solar industry because the timber frames, which hold the solar panels, are cheaper than the conventional steel frames.

“We have been working on this product behind the scenes with Clifford Jones Timber for months. We have pooled our knowledge of the Solar Industry and worked with them as timber specialists to develop this great range of products.

“We have the technical and manufacturing ability to even produce a custom system to suit if required.

“The concept was to keep it simple and to mimic the way it is installed currently on large scale. We are really excited to be on this journey and already have our sights set on Europe, the Middle East, India, the USA and China for the product.

“These things are costed at price per kilowatt hour of electricity but if you are even one pence an hour cheaper then that makes a massive difference.

“An average size solar farm has 60,000 solar panels and can generate 15 Megawatts of power, a thousand watts is a kilowatt and a million kilowatts make a megawatt.

“That means that one penny adds up to £150,000 a year cheaper and those sorts of figures make people sit up and take notice.”

The frame, mounted on wooden posts, comes with a 25-year guarantee on frame and post and Clifford Jones Timber Sales Chairman Alan Jones said: “The potential here is enormous because a medium-sized solar park of 60,000 solar panels which would need over 80,000 posts and frames could be worth £1.5 million.

“They are strong, durable, easy to install and made from FSC – Forest Stewardship Council – timber that is fully traceable and from sustainable forests, as is all the timber we use.”

Clifford Jones Timber employ over 80 people at their premises at Ruthin and at Gretna, in Scotland, and process over 100,000 tons of timber a year.

The range of products they supply includes fence posts, gates, laminated timber for the construction and leisure industries, bedding for horses and even cat litter, and a range of wood fuels, from dried logs and wood briquettes to wood pellets for biomass boilers.

Alan Jones added: “Everything that comes onto the site here is used. Nothing goes to waste thanks to three biomass boilers installed onsite.

“It’s that commitment to sustainability that has encouraged us to develop the wooden frames for solar panels.

“These could be used either on small domestic installations or on large scale solar parks and we believe we are leading the way in this field, not just nationally but Europe-wide.

“Solar power is clean energy and so now are the frames which can hold the solar panels and they are competitively priced, lighter and so easier to transport and, of course, they have a much smaller carbon footprint.

“We are uniquely well placed to manufacture these frame systems because we make the fence posts and can make the frames as well and in its laminated form it is four times stronger than ordinary wood.

“In a rigid timber form they support solar panels to make clean energy and then they can be brought back to us and we recycle them as biomass pellets to be burnt to create electricity.

“The design we have developed is also easily adjustable because solar panels have to be adjusted to the angle of the sun, depending where in the world you are – on the equator the sun is directly overhead but in the UK the panels need to be approximately at a 35 degree angle.

“That flexibility means that our frames could be used anywhere in the world and that could open up massive new markets for us.”

For more on Clifford Jones Timber go to http://www.cjtimber.com/ or to Twitter @Timber_Sol

A Ruthin company is celebrating after clinching a deal to look after the energy needs of a restaurant and café chain that’s planning a major expansion.

The Energy Company UK Ltd have signed to manage the utilities for mid-Wales based Gastronomy Foods UK Ltd, which employs 280 people in 12 KFC restaurants in North and Mid Wales and the West Midlands.

Gastronomy’s fryers, cookers and kettles at its 12 existing KFCs had their £600,000 bills handled by energy brokers The Energy Company, based on Ruthin’s Lon Parcwr estate.

Over the next five years Gastronomy is aiming at an ambitious growth plan to take on up to 20 Starbucks franchises and one of its first steps has been to enter into a new energy management deal with The Energy Company.

Gastronomy Managing Director Akram Khan said: “The Energy Company has been looking after our utility supplies for quite some time and have done an excellent job for us.

“They are very thorough and highly professional. They are also a local company and as we’ve grown they’ve grown with us. I think that’s what’s so good about them is that they care about their clients and what they do.

“Our energy bill for the KFC restaurants last year was nearly £600,000 – that’s £490,000 for electricity and £108,000 for gas – and The Energy Company has helped us to tightly control this by finding us the right suppliers for our needs.

“They’ve kept our energy costs relatively low and that has put us in a good place to expand.

“We’ve already asked them to do the same kind of job for us with the new Starbucks premises we’re planning because it’s vital that large energy bills are controlled by experts in the field.”

John Davies, Managing Director of The Energy Company, said: “The energy market is a very fickle and volatile beast. It takes experience and knowledge to make sure our clients are offered the best possible selection of not just rates, but an assessment of the best contract durations and supplier.

“To support Gastronomy’s planned expansion we will be arranging new electricity and gas metering installations and supply and ensuring that deadlines are hit so that the new sites open to plan.

“We have managed their energy since 2005 and this new deal is a real vote of confidence from them and comes at an exciting time for both companies.”

Gastronomy’s latest KFC restaurant opens next month on the Harlescott Retail Park, in Shrewsbury, and Managing Director Akram Khan intends to relocate the company’s headquarters there from its current home in Forden, near Welshpool.

Gastronomy Foods was founded by managing director Khan, who initially worked for the KFC brand at two franchises owned by the father of his then girlfriend, now his wife, Sabina, in East London.

He managed the branches on behalf of his father-in-law before purchasing his own franchise in Chingford, Essex in 2000, selling up in 2006 to buy seven restaurants in Wales.

Along with operations director Thamboo Subashkaran, area manager at the London outlets and part-owner of Gastronomy Foods, the new management embarked on a refurbishment programme, with the help of KFC, to modernise the restaurants, as well as expanding the workforce.

The company now has 12 KFC restaurants in Holyhead, Rhyl, Colwyn Bay, Rhuddlan, Aberystwyth, Caernarfon, Bangor, Llandudno and Llandudno Junction, Shrewsbury town centre, Oswestry and Stoke-on-Trent.

Akram Khan says the company’s aim is to eventually have a total of 20 KFC restaurants across Mid and North Wales and the Midlands.

He said: “Within the next five years we’re planning to have at least 20 Starbucks and, fingers crossed, to increase our present workforce of about 280 to between 800 and 1,000.

“I moved to Wales from Chingford nine years ago because I saw an opportunity to develop the KFC brand to an under-served market and now hope to do the same with Starbucks.

“We support more than 200 families and are very much focused on the people. I eventually plan to sell shares in the business to our employees to recognise their importance to the company.”

The Energy Company was founded by John Davies 20 years ago and is now based on Lon Parcwr, Ruthin, where it employs eight staff as well as a network of agents across the UK.

John Davies added: “We have worked solely in the specialised business market for many years but following a growing demand for a domestic service, we will shortly be launching a very competitive price checking website.

“We’re delighted to help all our 3,500 customers and we estimated that in the last 10 years alone we have saved them in excess of £5 million, money which I am sure they can better spend elsewhere in their business.”