POTATO growers across the UK are facing a challenge that has become one of the biggest threats to profitability: Electricity.
Cold stores run nonstop, packhouses are increasingly automated, and every upgrade in efficiency seems to pull more power from the grid.
RS Cockerill in North Yorkshire, one of the country’s largest growers, suppliers and packers, has taken a proactive approach to protect their profits and British Potato Review recently caught up with Sam Cockerill, who helps manage renewable energy projects for the business.
“Electrical power is one of our significant costs, especially as we’ve been increasing the automation and mechanisation of our operations. We’re always looking for how we can help to reduce the cost of our electrical power,” he said.
His words echo sentiments heard across the potato sector. Storage, grading and packing are becoming more demanding, and energy pricing now underpins every tonne of product leaving the yard.
What makes the situation more difficult is that customers, whether retailers, processors or foodservice buyers, still expect value and stability, but stable pricing is hard to guarantee when a major input cost behaves unpredictably.
“Our customers are always looking for the best value and we want to protect them from the possibility of future electrical power price increases and also make that cost more certain,” said Sam.
It’s a familiar balancing act: Invest in productivity, control costs and maintain quality.
This is the environment in which Cockerill turned to solar power, to stabilise a volatile cost and take control of a critical part of their operation. The company’s 612 kWp rooftop system, installed across several buildings of different ages and structures, now generates a significant share of its daytime electricity.
The system installed by Novalux Solar, should achieve a 33.6% return on investment and annual CO₂ savings of more than 127 tonnes. For a site with substantial cold storage and continuous handling operations, those gains make a material difference, Sam said.
Like many long-established farm sites, Cockerill’s operates from a patchwork of buildings developed over decades, each with its own layout, electrical demands and role in the production flow. Integrating a major infrastructure project around that complexity is no small task.
“The site has been built over the course of several decades, and it’s a very busy site,” Sam said. “One of the most important aspects was understanding how we could integrate the solar installation in and around the busy operations.”
Safe installation on a live packhouse is another hurdle many growers and suppliers worry about and Cockerill’s was no different. Sam said it was essential to prevent disruption and he was grateful that Novalux managed the interaction with the operations and maintenance team.
He said Cockerill regards electricity not merely as a cost, but as a foundation for future improvements. Solar isn’t its end goal, it’s the first stage of a longer energy strategy.
“We’re looking at this installation as the first step,” Sam said. “Electrical power is going to be a huge enabler of the things we’re doing in the near and long-term future. Having more control over how we generate and use that power will open a lot of doors for us.”
Those doors include more automation, improved on-site logistics and even potential electrification of certain vehicle movements — all of which depend on stable, affordable power. Cockerill’s belief in this business model is proven as it has just signed up to install a further 296kWp Solar PV system with Novalux Solar at its site in Barmby.
Novalux Managing Director Joe Allcott described Cockerill as a forward-thinking business and said now is a good time for others wanting to replicate its strategy.
“The paybacks for solar are generally around the three to four-year mark and will continue to generate returns for 25-plus years. This, coupled with advancing technology in solar and storage mean that farms can make sizeable returns. Nova AI, developed by Novalux will help growers to profit the most from their solar and Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) by intelligently tracking market and usage data and continuously optimising between electricity usage and sale for the highest profit.”
To counteract the upfront cost, the Annual Investment Allowance allows farms to offset up to 100% of eligible solar expenditure against taxable profit. For energy-heavy operations like cold stores, these mechanisms can significantly reduce payback times.
Cockerill’s experience reflects where much of the potato sector now finds itself. Energy is no longer a background cost, it’s a defining factor in competitiveness. While solar won’t solve every challenge, Joe and Sam say it offers potato suppliers something the grid increasingly cannot – predictability.
