School gets new set of PV panels from Ashton Hayes CEC
Saturday, June 11, 2016 at 7:24PM ;)
Over the Spring Bank holiday, Ashton Hayes Community Energy Company (AHCEC) successfully arranged for the installation of a second bank of solar photovoltaic panels on the primary school roof. The new panels will generate over 14kw of green energy for around 25 years. The school will benefit from a long-term free electricity supply, saving on running costs, while our not-for-profit AHCEC will benefit from Feed-In-Tariff (FiT) income and reduce our carbon emissions. The cash generated from FiTs will be reinvested in future community energy schemes.
The installation was not straightfoward, as it required Scottish Power Energy Networks (SPEN) to connect a new low-voltage line to the Church Road electricity network. AHCEC kept the costs of this work as low as possible by digging and backfilling a new cable trench that runs along the grass verge to the right hand side of the school driveway.
AHCEC would like to thank everyone for their help and support with the installation. The school team - Matt Hover, Diane Stubbs and Doreen Salt were incredibly flexible, Dominic McDermott of Nettleridge construction provided the digger and support when needed and the SPEN team, led by delivery engineer Carlos Javier Martinez de Ilarduya Mugarza provided wonderful customer service. Raine & Shine (Graeme Raine and Kate Monkman) carried out the panel installation on budget and on time and coordinated the scaffolding.
The AHCEC board members also deserve recognition for the hours of volunteer effort that went into the project.