Prolectric’s powerful progress
9 February 2024
While sustainability is a new topic to many, Prolectric’s entire history has been focused on this subject area. Visiting the innovative company’s headquarters and factory recently in Clevedon, near Bristol, gave an opportunity to see how it has steadily developed its product range in light of new market demands and technical advances.
The business is also committed to robust ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) initiatives.
The original Prolectric operation was formed in 2011 to meet a developing market in off-grid solar technology, driven partly by government feed-in tariffs (FITs) to encourage take-up. The company developed a solar street light for permanent installation, believed to have been the first of its kind in the UK. Research into other products followed.
The business expanded by merging with Forgen Renewables which had explored wind power and other green technologies, and it began developing mobile lighting and power generation equipment, including the solar ProLight lighting tower in 2016.
In 2021, Prolectric Services was acquired by Hill & Smith Holdings plc, a FTSE 250 international group focused on sustainable infrastructure and safe transport. This gave further growth potential, especially as Prolectric had identified a need for hybrid solar machines with integral backup generators, an opportunity that had been strengthened with the 2019 acquisition of Solartainer which made containerised power products.
Prolectric’s innovation was recognised when it won a Queen’s Award for Sustainable Development in 2021. The business also holds gold CSR (corporate social responsibility) accreditation.
Bespoke software and telematics systems are at the heart of many key products in the Prolectric range as this enables equipment to be adjusted carefully, in situ or remotely. Information on operational parameters like fuel usage, solar energy harnessed and carbon savings can also be captured.
Obtaining such accurate data is essential as it allows operation to be optimised and it provides data showing the economic and environmental benefits, according to Rachel Preen, who took over as Prolectric MD in January 2023 from its founder Chris Williams. Rachel had joined in 2021 as Commercial Director, following six years with energy company Ecotricity as Head of Marketing, Business Development & Commercial Partnerships.
“We have to substantiate and validate everything we say about our products’ performance, so accurate measurement and measurement is vital,” she said.
This is all the more important since on-site human error can lead to operational issues, such as positioning solar panels incorrectly or keeping connected equipment switched on unnecessarily. By monitoring and managing installations, optimum sustainable operation can be achieved, whether a user has one machine or hundreds in various locations. Also, by adjusting performance levels, Prolectric says that year-round performance can be achieved.
As the blog reported recently, Prolectric calculates that it has saved users 27 million kilograms of CO2 and reduced diesel usage by more than 10.2 million litres since launching its first solar lighting towers, saving customers more than £10 million.
Kathryn Adams, Prolectric’s Commercial Director, added that such data allows users to calculate costs and savings over the whole lifetime of a project or for a particular machine in a fleet, alongside other benefits such as decreased noise and emissions on sites by reducing usage of fossil fuel powered machines.
Products are manufactured at the Clevedon factory. Some components like canopies, solar panels and trailers are sourced from outside suppliers and the systems giving telematics and software monitoring capabilities are added during assembly.
The company’s product line-up includes the fully solar ProLight (pictured above) and the compact ProRXM mobile lighting towers, the ProRXM Hybrid (shown below), the ProTemp PT6 solar lighting column, ProTrack battery powered link-lighting, the ProPower solar hybrid generator that is offered in single and 3-phase (shown below) versions, and ProCam solar CCTV units. Bespoke products are also designed and manufactured for specific applications.
Prolectric is well into the process of obtaining EPD (environmental product declarations) for all its equipment under the BRE (Building Research Establishment) Lina system, which looks at whole-life data. This pro-active approach also helps others in the supply chain to evaluate their own carbon footprint.
Richard Randall, Product Development Manager, said that the company has a five-year plan for exploring new machine ideas, with the aim of launching two to three new products every year. Many arise out of initial feedback discussions with users and, judging by what could be glimpsed at the Clevedon factory, we can expect a steady stream of new additions.
Given Prolectric’s focus on sustainable light and power, it is not surprising that environmental awareness is evident throughout the company and its relationships with the wider community. This was highlighted when the business achieved for the second time the gold accreditation for corporate social responsibility from the CSR-A organisation, with an impressive 95% score, as reported previously.
Rachel Preen said that such CSR awareness underlines the symbiotic link that exists between businesses and communities – but more on that in a future blog post.
There are also exciting expansion plans in the pipeline which will be announced in the near future.
So, in many ways, Prolectric’s future looks bright.
● Prolectric is exhibiting at the Executive Hire Show on 14 and 15 February at the CBS Arena in Coventry. The company has a larger presence this year on stand J10.
