Published on Monday, Dec 5 2011 by David Sanderson
Oxford is to become the latest city to benefit from a major
solar panel installation.
Oxford City Council has announced that it is to spend £665,000 on the
solar panels, which will be fitted to the roofs of council buildings located across the city.
The buildings to benefit from the push towards renewable energy include Headley House, Cardinal House, Knights House, Ferry Leisure Centre and Barton Leisure Centre.
The move, which has been approved by the council in a bid to cut power costs across their portfolio of council buildings, is tipped to create dramatic savings.
Twenty-five years after the installation, the solar panels are expected to have brought in £1.9 million of savings, partly as a result of the government Feed-in-Tariff subsidies, and partly through lower energy bills.
The council could also sell the energy it creates but does not use back to the National Grid, thus potentially raising more money that way. However, it is also expected that the solar panel installation will not break even for 14 years.
John Tanner, board member for the Cleaner Greener Oxford campaign - which aims to educate and encourage local residents to ensure they play their part in keeping the city green - told the Oxford Mail, “We have got to create a low-carbon future for Oxford and everywhere else, and getting solar panels on public and private buildings so we can create our own clean energy is an important part of that.
“We are hoping to get the full rebate from the Government but even if we miss it and get the lower rate, it will still be worth doing. It’s always a problem finding the capital for upfront investment but there is no doubt that, for our children, this will seem a very sensible thing to do,” Mr Tanner added.
If the initial roll-out of solar panels across the five council buildings proves successful and workable, the council could well consider installing the panels onto other buildings in the city in the future.
The solar panel plans are expected to be approved by Oxford County Council on Wednesday this week. The Oxford Mail reported that a recent statement issued to members read, “The shortlist of properties has been developed to ensure a pilot can proceed at a reasonable pace while addressing some of the key issues that may be encountered in the roll out of a wider scheme.”
Another local council has also signed off plans to install a major solar panel array on a council building. Northumberland County Council recently approved a planning application to install 39 solar panels onto Tweedmouth's Swan Centre for Leisure's south-facing roof.
The solar panels were deemed to be able to boost energy efficiency at the centre, whilst also cutting energy costs and slashing carbon dioxide emissions.
The council also confirmed that, following the installation of the solar panel arrays, the energy created will be put to use by the leisure centre, with any extra energy that the centre does not needed being exported back to the National Grid.
Northumberland County Council's Karen Ledger, told Berwick Today, “In the opinion of the local planning authority the proposal would not have a significant detrimental impact on visual and residential amenity.”
Read more about Oxford's Cleaner, Greener campaign at the
Oxford City Council website.
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