Growing Greener: Arboretum Powers Its Two Garden Centres with Huawei FusionSolar

Arboretum is one of Ireland's best-loved family-owned garden centres. Its flagship store in Carlow sits on a ten-acre site and offers a full lifestyle experience: a kitchen store, garden café, home and gift, furniture and fashion areas, and a team of qualified plant experts, all under one roof. Its second store opened in 2015 in Kilquade, Co. Wicklow, on the site of the National Garden Exhibition Centre. It keeps growing every year, with a superb plant offering, a furniture and BBQ shop, garden tools and care, an outdoor landscaping area, and the much-loved Rachel's Secret Café.

In 2024, Arboretum partnered with Huawei installer Renewables Ireland to bring solar power to both stores:

• Arboretum Carlow: a 125kWp Huawei FusionSolar system, installed in May 2024 in one week.
• Arboretum Kilquade: a 95kWp Huawei FusionSolar system, installed in June 2024 in one week.

Each site had its own needs. In Carlow, the larger system offsets the energy demand of an established set of buildings. Kilquade has a smaller system, but it works alongside a €4.5 million refurbishment that added energy-efficient technology such as heat pumps. Together they show how solar can deliver for both older premises and newly upgraded ones.

Watch the video to see how Arboretum is cutting its energy costs and growing a more sustainable business for the future.