Solar News

Wednesday 14 July 2010

St Silas church, in Pentonville, London has been fitted with specially-manufactured PV tiles under the Green Streets programme

Installing solar panels on British churches and other religious buildings could raise £34 million per year through Feed-in Tariff (FiT) payments and electricity bill savings, according to figures released by British Gas.

According to data based on the company's Green Streets programme, published this week (July 12), the renewable technology could generate more than £29 million-a-year for places of worship through FiTs and save nearly £5 million a year by not having to buy electricity.

The Feed-in Tariff scheme was launched in April this year and provides fixed, technology-dependent payments to individuals, organisations and businesses who install renewable electricity generators for every unit of electricity they produce (see this NewEnergyFocus.com story). Under the scheme, solar photovoltaic (PV) tariffs peak at 41.3p/kWh - the highest available tariff.

The British Gas Green Streets programme - which provides £2 million to fund microgeneration and energy efficiency measures to help 14 communities around the UK save and generate energy - has both a church and a mosque involved in the project and the figures revealed here are based on real life examples of the potential savings of these buildings. These were then extrapolated to take account of the number of churches and mosques in the UK and their average congregation.

British Gas notes that the savings and money-making potential identified will be "a welcome revelation" to religious buildings which have been hit by the recession, claiming a recent report found that a quarter of all Church of England dioceses are currently facing budget deficits.

The figures also show that the CO2 savings of installing solar panels could also be significant, with savings of up to 42,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year.

Potential

Commenting on the findings, Phil Bentley, managing director of British Gas, said: "These potential savings are great news for the UK's religious buildings and their congregations, and give them the opportunity to lead their communities in tackling climate change and helping Britain move towards a low carbon society.

"Religious buildings are particularly well suited to solar power as they tend to have large south-facing roofs which receive direct sunlight for the main part of the day. The government's Feed-in Tariff scheme is the key to unlocking the potential of solar power in Britain."

Father Paul Richards, of St Silas Church in Pentonville, London, added: "The Church of England is committed to saving energy and becoming greener throughout the UK and the potential for solar panels on our churches is an exciting prospect.

"Even though not all UK churches could adopt this model due to planning and architectural conservation laws, there may be thousands of Church of England buildings out there that could help create a greener future by generating clean energy as well as some much needed income."