A MAJOR manufacturing company in North Yorkshire is expecting to make savings on its energy bills after a £220,000 investment in green technology.

Econ Engineering, which makes and supplies gritting and snow plough vehicles, has installed 800 solar photovoltaic panels on the roof of its Ripon factory.

The move is expected to lower the firm’s electricity consumption by about 15 per cent per year.

Fabrication manager Colin Trewhitt said: “As a manufacturing business we have unavoidably high levels of power consumption and the investment in solar panels will pay for itself in only a few years. We pride ourselves on our pioneering approach to technology.”