HHGESOLAR
The theme of the last few months is:
Everything takes longer and costs more than expected!
I was hopeful to be ready by now to arrange our next community meeting with you all and share the next steps- but in old buildings in a conservation area things are often more complicated than they first appear….
Here’s an update on all things solar so far:
Planning application- we’ve had some conversations with the Council's planning team and invited the Council’s conservation officer to come and see the Estate and discuss exactly what information they need. We’ll likely need to apply for some more funding to get some support with the planning application.
Roof survey- this proved to be harder to arrange and more expensive than expected. We needed measured plans of all the roofs but as the Estate is nearing 100 years old the original records could no longer be found. So instead, we’ve had a measured survey of all the roofs on the flats done. The report from this will help to inform planning applications as well as phase 2 of the roof survey- assessing load and factors like wind on the proposed solar panels. This will require some extra funding which we’ve got some leads on.
Paying for installation/capital costs- we’ve had meetings with a bank to set up a community bond offer – this looks like a good option to spread costs over 10 years. At the moment it wouldn’t cover the full cost of installation so we are now exploring options to reduce costs or access other funding.
What would residents save on energy bills?- we’re putting together some examples of how having solar would reduce energy bills for residents- we’ll share these on our website soon. This will also help to show possible grant organisations or investors what benefits the scheme will bring.
We’re nearly at the end of our funding from the Net Zero hub- this is exciting and brings us to a new stage. Once we’ve got more concrete options for funding we will write to all residents inviting you to a meeting to discuss. We plan to have both an in-person and an online event, hopefully increasing the number of people who can attend.
