OUR SERVICES
The diversification of SDL is an ever-growing project.
See our evolution below...
SDL Solutions distinguishes itself within the UK renewable energy industry through a comprehensive service facilitated by a team of biomass engineers, specialised industry experts, and state-of-the-art machinery. Since its establishment over a decade ago by our Founder and CEO, Sam Launchbury, the company has strived to become the nation's most dependable supplier of renewable biomass energy, unwavering in its commitment to deliver a professional and industry leading experience to every client across all sectors of the business.
This steadfast dedication remains the driving force behind our operations, bolstered by our ever expanding team who share Sam's vision and uphold the highest standards of workmanship.
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As we continue to evolve, SDL Solutions consistently invests in specialised machinery to meet the evolving needs of our growing client base. We take pride in being among the select manufacturers in the UK to have strategically invested in a combined heat and power plant that operates exclusively on biomass feedstock.
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Our paramount objective is to provide renewable energy solutions to the commercial, public, and private sectors, actively working to transition an increasing number of households and businesses away from fossil fuels. At SDL Solutions, we embrace this mission wholeheartedly, striving to contribute to a greener future by facilitating the adoption of sustainable energy sources.
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01.
PAST
The foundation of modern day SDL was built on our founders vision, using his motivation the SDL team began to grow and diversify into the biomass industry.
02.
PRESENT
Our current experience and ability to provide a 360 service surrounding the biomass supply chain is a huge achievement towards SDL's goals.
03.
FUTURE
SDL's growth in all of the businesses sectors has no intention of slowing. With our recent sawmill investment our future lies within the cohesive activity within our company to strive for exceptional opeations.
2001
The Beginning of a Vision
Our founder, Sam Launchbury, started out as an agricultural contractor, undertaking civil groundworks and site clearance work.
2007
Company Begins To Grow
Sam employed his first member of staff and the company grew quickly, offering a complete service for agricultural civil works.
2008
Tree Felling Machinery Investment
We were one of the first companies in the UK to have invested in a mechanical tree felling machine. This was used to improve the safety for our team and efficiency of our machinery. It's a brilliant bit of kit that we still use to this day.
2009
Site Clearance
Our main project for 2009 was installing one of the UK's first Aerobic Digesters. This included building the crop silos, the aerobic digester and the transformer for its connection to the grid managing all of the civil engineering, which was commissioned in mid 2010.
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We also continued to carry out a large array of site clearance work, contract chipping, and we began to sell the material we produced to larger biomass power stations across the UK.
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2011
Large Scale Chipper Investment
Having secured a contract to supply woodchip to Wolverhampton Prison for their biomass boiler, we needed to invest in new equipment.
We purchased our first large scale chipper, a Jenz 561DQ. Before having this piece of equipment, all of the woodchip was processed by hand on smaller scale wood chippers.
This enabled us to start the supply and storage of wood chip, for sale to smaller scale biomass customers.
2015
Biomass Facilities Are Built
We ceased all civil engineering works, focusing our attention solely into site clearance, for the production and supply of biomass wood fuel.
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We moved into Wessington Quarry, where we built two purpose-built cutting-edge 1mw Giles biomass boilers for production and drying facilities.
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We also applied for planning permission to build a large scale combined heat and power (CHP) plant. This was to produce our own power generation and was to be located at Stanleys Quarry, just down the road.
2016
Biomass Diversification & Planning Permission
SDL further diversified from biomass works and site clearance in 2016. A wood pellet production facility was installed and run by the existing biomass boiler systems built in 2015.
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This produced EN Plus A1 wood pellets, the highest quality pellets available. This was a great introduction to wood pellet manufacturing, developing our skills and experience.
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Planning permission was also granted which allowed us to start work on building our own CHP Plant on the 11th October 2016 at Stanleys Quarry. We obtained our G59 and started pumping energy back into the national grid on the 28th March 2017, taking just over 6 months to complete.
2019
Pellet Sales & Decommissioning
Due to the success of our quality wood pellets we decided it was time to expand to a bigger production scale, as we were running at maximum capacity and we couldn't fulfil our production needs with the equipment we had.
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This meant we needed to decommission the pellet line and begin to build a brand new and state of the art, wood pellet production line.
2020
Rebuild Underway
The new state of the art pellet line began its construction at Stanley’s Quarry. Due to delays faced because of the external factors of Brexit and Covid, this project was delayed, with an estimated completion date of 2021.
The machinery hire side of the business and contract chipping continued to grow, taking on ever more challenging projects.
2021
Rebuild Complete
The rebuild of the pellet line was completed in November 2021.
This saw the launch of producing and selling En-Plus A1 wood pellets to the commercial and domestic markets.
2023
Sawmill Purchase
Our latest diversification was the acquisition of a sawmill to enable us to produce finished sawn wood products.
This completes our 360° biomass supply loop, from the felling of biomass material, through to processing in our sawmills, supplying our biomass boilers with any waste product and being used to power our wood pellet production line.
The sawmill allows us to use the full tree and remove any wastage from the harvesting and processing procedures, supporting our sustainable business practices.
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During this year we also moved the 2x Giles boilers from Wessington Quarry to Stanleys Quarry to increase the drying capacity on site.
2024
The Future & Beyond
We are always looking to the future and how we continue to produce a superior product whilst upholding our strong environmental principles in all of our operations.
We are planning on raising investment to install a carbon capture on our biomass boiler. This would further reduce our carbon offsetting and futureproof the wood lifecycle, also enabling us to capture up to 3 tonnes of carbon per hour!
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We are also developing our own replanting team, so we cover the whole lifecycle and future lifecycle of trees and further support the forestry industry.
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To see our company Mission, Vision & Values, find out more here.
“Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.”
JAMES CASH PENNEY