A small chain of luxury hair salons in the North West of England has brushed away expensive energy bills by installing solar panels at its largest site in Preston.

Jo and Cass underwent an assessment by solar PV specialists Solarlec, which showed the company it could trim its energy costs by £35,000 over 25 years, cutting bills by £73,000 with the Feed in Tariff taken into account.

Solarlec helped the hairdresser get financing through the Energy Efficiency Financing (EEF) initiative run by Siemens and the Carbon Trust. The company was able to secure a seven year financing deal worth £15,000.

Graham Cass, Director of Jo and Cass said: “Saving money is no doubt our primary objective but it’s equally important for us to run an environmentally friendly business. The investment is therefore a win-win situation. Many of our customers are very environmentally conscious, so it has been great marketing for us to be able to say that we can reduce over 4.5 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year with our solar panels.”