News Article
Community Centre Benefits With Council Energy Targets
A solar photovoltaic (PV) system has been installed on the roof of a new community centre in Four Elms Road, Edenbridge to support Kent County Council's strategy of achieving a low carbon economy. Developed and installed by Photon Energy in conjunction with Hill Partnerships, the system will provide huge cost savings through the feed-in tariff and the generation of electricity, which will help the Council to fund further local environmental projects.
This is part of a wider move to deliver targets set out in the Council's Environment Policy, which aims to address issues of climate change by reducing energy usage and meet its carbon reduction target of 2.6 per cent each year until 2015. As well as savings on energy bills, the 22kWp system will generate more than £4,000 in annual revenue through the feed-in tariff, providing over 17,870 kWh of power to the community centre "“ an ideal place for in-roof mounted solar PV system given its access to direct sunlight. The system will give an annual CO2 saving of over 9,450kg.
With a display unit to indicate the amount of energy generated and CO2 saved, the installation will be used as an education opportunity to demonstrate the benefits of solar PV and renewable energy technologies to the wider community, as well as the importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Abu Luswata, project engineer of Photon Energy, said: "At Photon Energy, we're seeing an increasing number of local authorities recognising the benefits that solar PV can bring to reducing energy bills and carbon emissions. They're also using the systems to raise awareness of issues surrounding climate change within the wider community.
"While new buildings such as this one in Edenbridge are highly beneficial to the local area, it's important for councils to take steps that will help to reduce their carbon footprint as part of the planning process. Renewable energy technologies prove highly successful and solar PV on community centres, schools and hospitals will go a long way to helping local authorities such as Kent County Council achieve its energy saving targets."
