Exelby Services has fitted a battery system at its Whitwood truck stop in Castleford that will allow it to store energy generated by solar panels more effectively. The Yorkshire group describes the investment as the “next step in the site’s energy efficiency journey”.
U Energy installed the 215kWh Dunext system, having already supplied Exelby with its rooftop 102kW photovoltaic (PV) solar panels. The forecourt operator says the latter have helped reduce its electricity bill and carbon emissions considerably.
Exelby – which also operates at Coneygarth off the A1(M); Carleton near Carlisle; and on either side of the A19 at Ingleby Arncliffe near Northallerton – says the battery system will allow it to store excess solar energy from the PV cells for use during peak periods or when clouds reduce power generation.
Exelby, which traces its origins to a garage on the A1 in Londonderry, North Yorkshire, in the 1940s, has been an industry pioneer in sustainability, with a target of becoming carbon neutral as a business by the end of the decade.
Managing director Rob Exelby won the 2023 reader-voted Forecourt Trader Special Recognition Award, adding to the Forecourt Trader of the Year Award in 2021 for the family firm’s redeveloped A19 North site.
Although primarily a truck stop operator, Exelby offers motorist services with Shell-branded forecourts with Londis convenience outlets.
