Birchall Tea opens UK's first solar powered tea factory in Wiltshire

Birchall Tea, a family-run brand based in Amesbury, Wiltshire, has opened what it says is the UK's first fully solar powered tea factory. The 32,000 sq ft facility runs on electricity from 460 rooftop solar panels, with any surplus exported to the National Grid. The company reports it has generated over 500,000 kWh of clean energy so far and also uses air source heat pumps for heating. The factory supports Birchall's carbon neutral certification, which it first achieved in 2020. All teabags are plastic free. The project shows how a mid sized manufacturer can shift an energy intensive process like tea production to onsite renewables without relying on offsets or grid power. It is a concrete example of industrial electrification paired with solar generation at a commercial scale.