A Merseyside housing association is fitting solar panels onto its offices and some properties to help reduce tenants’ energy bills, and its impact on the environment.
Social landlord Knowsley Housing Trust (KHT), part of the First Ark Group, is working with contractors Dodd Group Ltd to install the PV panels to 21 low rise blocks, 10 mid rise blocks and two of its offices – its headquarters in Prescot and its Page Moss local office.
KHT is spending £750,000 on the scheme, which will generate a return over the next 25 years through the Government’s Feed in Tariffs to cover the cost of installation.
Ian Thomson, Executive Director of Asset Management at KHT, said: “This scheme will help tackle fuel poverty in our communities and reduce our carbon footprint.
The panels will be installed in ‘arrays’ or clusters on top of the communal blocks. There will be 31 clusters in total.
The Feed in Tariffs, paid by the Government for every unit of electricity generated, will be fed back to KHT to cover the cost of installation.
The scheme is being completed now to ensure all panels are fitted before a proposed cut in the Government’s Feed in Tariff rate comes into force on March 3, from 43.3p/kWh to 21p/kWh.
The cut was to come into force on December 12, and was announced with six weeks notice and before the close of a consultation on the issue.
The High Court has ruled that this move was unlawful, but the Government is considering appealing the decision to the Supreme Court. As such, uncertainty remains over whether installations completed between December 12 and March 3 will receive the full or reduced rate.
“We won’t know for sure which rate is in place before March 3 until after the legal processes have been completed, but we didn’t want to take that chance and possibly miss out,” said Ian.
“This is a big investment for KHT and any return we get will be invested into our low rise blocks and further energy efficiency initiatives. Our ability to do this will be dramatically reduced if our return is effectively halved.
“However we had to push ahead and can now only await the outcome of the Government’s appeal.”
Pictured is Ian Thomson (L) and Jeff Wilton, Contracts Manager at the Dodd Group
It's outrageous that these tarriffs have been cut. Energy companies are allowed to charge twice as much as the original rate for unclean energy, whereas clean energy fed into the grid is worth less. This is absolutely absurd, and if you want to cut the feed in tarriffs, you have to cut the rate that energy providers are allowed to sell at.
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Posted by: solar panels cardiff | May 09, 2012 at 04:01 PM