- Carrickcloughan Farm

My name is John Mooney, I'm a 3rd generation farmer from Kiama. I run this farm with my wife and kids and it's locally known as Carrickcloughan Farm. We provide 6,000,000 eggs annually to the UK, Europe and the Middle East. In September 2021 gas prices rose sharply and this had a huge knock on effect on our energy costs. With a huge increase in energy bills, our monthly bill rose 600%. This was not viable long term.

So I searched on the Internet, I looked at local farmers, I looked at local business to see what they were doing, and I was recommended to start solar in Bainbridge. I contacted Andrew, and we went through the process, explained to Andrew what our usage is per year, and he give me expert advice on how I could significantly reduce my energy bill.

We made a deal, and this is for Star Solar Tugover. Andrew informed me it would take me 3 months to get the application through, and to his word, Andrew had his expert staff on-site. The installation process was seamless. When the engineers were on-site, I asked them, could they be very careful. We have 27,000 boards, and they would be very, very nervous if they hear noise that they're not used to. I explained this to the engineers, and they talked to duty care to make sure that the operation of installing the solar panels was as quiet and efficient to be.

My energy usage per units was 93,000 units per year this past 3 years. After this year, with the 50 kfe system on-site, our usage is just shy of 44,000 units, which is almost half the savings. I made the switch to renewable energy. I've seen what that has done for my business and the savings that it has made. I fully recommend start solar as their expertise and customer service is second to none.

- Paul Thompson Freight

Hi. I'm Ben Thompson, managing director of Paul Thompson Freight. So when we moved into our new premises here in Lisburn, renewable energy was something we were very interested in. I bumped into Matthew, and he was telling us about the solar projects he was doing.

So we brought him down to to have a look at our new premises here in Lisbon and see what he could do for us. Once we signed up, they put a project in plan. They installed over the weekend, so there is absolutely no downtime for Paul Thompson Freight, which was a must for us. When we came in to work on on Monday, everything was installed and ready to go. No bass, you wouldn't even have knew they were here. Very professional service.

The improvements that we've seen at Paul Thompson Freight with start solar on the solar panels on our roof, we've seen a dramatic decrease in energy usage which at the minute is priority with the high energy costs. The obvious benefit of solar is the reduced cost of energy. start solar were very professional from start to finish.

They came in installed over the weekend, no downtime for our company. Matthew who looked after the project for us, was very professional. We couldn't recommend them highly enough.

- Boran Packaging

Solar was a no brainer for us. Mairtin Borane, Managing Director of Borane Packaging. Part of my role is obviously to manage 2 sites here down in Kildare and one site up in Strabane. Been in the role for the last 20 odd years. The difficulty for us was to pick, we had to pick a partner. What helped us with Andrew was he said he was going to do something, he'd done it, and he'd done it efficiently and effectively.

We also got it off the ground quickly, we want to become a responsible business, clean green energy, and Andrew allowed that to happen very quickly. I think our first installation, we got done inside, uh, something like a 8 month period. Finding that installation, and we moved on and done a second one, you know, a few months later. Clean Energy, it was a part of our responsible business strategy. We are a large user of energy.

Solar was a no brainer for us, it has a big impact on our strategy. We're able to show how much carbon we save using solar funds. Capital equipment costs was something that the company, we were happy to invest in it. In a 4 5 year period, capital cost had been paid off. It was also a way of safeguarding against higher energy costs. Once you have a partnership on both sides, people do what they say they're going to do and they and they do it efficiently, then doing business is is a lot easier.

At the time, the the original project cost wise, Star Solar, were were very competitive. If you want to help the planet, want to invest in the future, it doesn't matter what business you're in, cheaper energy, safeguarding your future costs, it's it's the most. Yeah.

I have no hesitation in recommending Star Solar. Uh, they're a company that does what they say they're going to do, uh, both time wise and, you know, completion of projects. We'd like to recommend them to any future customers that Star Solar may may have come their way.