ST MARY'S PARISH CHURCH, HINCKLEY.
 

AN ECO CHURCH

 

Contractors:

SOLSTICE ENERGY LTD,

14 Gladwyn Road, Putney, London SW15 1JY

www.solsticeenergy.co.uk

I am very happy to commend Solstice Energy ltd  to you. They installed our Photo Voltaic Solar Panels in January 2009 and have done an excellent job. Richard Warren  first started working with us on the project in July 2006. Throughout the whole process he has most patient and helpful. In particular he helped us with advice and information for the funding applications.  Special  clamps had to be designed to fix the panels to the lead roof, and these seem to be working very well.  I would have no hesitation in recommending other churches and  organisations to employ Solstice.

PRESS RELEASE JANUARY 2009

THE SOLAR PANELS ARE UP AT LAST!

 Solar panels have now finally been installed at St Mary’s, Hinckley. They should have been in place last October, but at the last minute structural weaknesses were found in the roof beams of the South Aisle where the panels were to be fixed. Following a detailed study by a structural engineer, the church was told that the roof needed strengthening even if the panels were abandoned. This work was done in November, at a cost of £25,000. An appeal has so far raised £17,000.

 St Mary’s Church will be one of the first medieval church’s in the country to have solar panels. 28 panels have now been installed on the south-facing roof of the church, parts of which date back to the 13th Century. Special clamps have been designed to fix the panels to the roof, without causing any damage to the lead.  They are expected to generate about a fifth of the church’s energy needs, about 5kw, and save the emission of nearly 1.5tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.

Funding for the £31,929 project includes £13,700 from the Low Carbon Building Programme, £12,450 from EDF Energy’s Green Fund and £5,779 from the church and donations from the local community.

 Canon Brian Davis, Vicar of St Mary’s, says: “It is a great relief to have the panels finally in place. It has taken over two years since we decided to go ahead with the project. I believe that putting panels on the oldest and most important building in Hinckley will make a powerful statement about the urgent need to do everything we can to reduce carbon emissions and prevent further global warming.” 

Peter Hofman, EDF Energy’s Director Sustainable Future, said: “An active approach to combating climate change has led this church community to develop this innovative scheme. They are determined to raise the public profile of renewable energy technology. We hope this project will stimulate thinking in the community about the steps everyone can take to reduce their carbon footprint. The south-facing roof lends itself to solar panels and will showcase the technology for many years to come in a busy town-centre location.”

 There will be pictures of the solar panels inside the church because the equipment will not be visible from the ground. A display panel will also show how much energy the solar panels are producing and the carbon dioxide emissions being saved. The project will complement the church’s environmental policy, for which it has been awarded  the status of Eco-Congregation for 2008-2010. Projects have included bicycle racks outside the church, low energy light bulbs, recycled paper for all church printing, and a Fair Trade stall.

For other churches   interested in installing Solar Panels, here ar esome extracts from one of our applications for funding:

 
 Scheme Description

We are planning to install a 4.9kWp Solar Photovoltaic array on the roof of the South Aisle of St Mary’s Church.

 Description of the Process undertaken to establish the choice of Technology.

 Solar PV was the recommendation of an energy audit commissioned by St Mary’s Environmental Group who are a group that meets regularly to discuss and plan actions to reduce the church’s environmental impact and to encourage others to do the same. 

 The energy audit was carried out by the Local Authority's Energy Conservation Officer.  Solar PV was found to be the best option for the church as there was generally only a small water heating requirement and wind turbines would have planning issues, so solar PV was the best option.  It was decided to try to match the PV max output with the max lighting load on a grid connected system.

 Details of how the feasibility of the specific technology has been established.

 The main electrical load that the installation aims to provide, is a daytime load, as that is when the building is most used, hence solar generation is appropriate. The roof area is easily big enough to accommodate the panel array.  The roof area orientation is south facing.  The pitch is adequate to get an efficient generation for sunlight.  There are no shading issues.

 Key Partners involved and the roles they play

Solstice Energy – provision and installation of the panels, balance, set-up and maintenance of the system.

Church Architect – design specification for array fixings and structural survey of church roof for plan area of installation.

Project Manager: The project is to be managed by ................................

 Details of the Installation

 28 Suntech modules   2  Fronius inverters   4.9 kWp system generation   Grid Connected   Bespoke fixings to lead flashing rolls on church roof   35 m2 array area.

 There will be a 3 phase generation meter (Ofgem accredited) installed as part of the system.  This will be connected to a public display meter in the main hall. Energy will be monitored after installation to determine the need for an export meter.  The installation will be Schedule 7 compliant.

Objectives

 St Mary’s is looking to install Solar PV panels as a part of an overall environmental strategy.  Our status as an Eco-congregation is imminent.  We have promoted many environmental causes such as energy efficiency, recycling, water saving, composting, real nappies, cycling. This has been done by many mechanisms such as a ‘YB Green’ Environmental day – a special day to talk solely about the aforementioned issues, special services- such a recent service for cyclists, promotion of causes at general Sunday services, handouts of acquired environmental tools such as hippo bags.  We now want to go one stage further by installing Solar PV panels with a highly visual display inside the church building.  It has already been significant talking point, with articles in local newspapers on our intent, from the Leicester Mercury and Hinckley Times, and in the Diocese of Leicester.  We want to use this to stimulate thinking around what individuals can do, by considering renewables, energy efficiency, offsetting and even simple things such as switching to green renewable tariffs, which has been a revelation to many in discussions around the project.  We want to install PV Panels to ‘lead by example’ to help change peoples thinking in the community.  (50 – 100 people use the church coffee area alone each day, excluding services).  We also want to use this as a centre piece for our next environmental day. 

Community Benefits

 There will be a large number of people and organisations benefiting from this initiative. The church will have a reduced electricity bill. The large all age congregation will also benefit. The church has 4 services every Sunday. It is an open church used by the entire community. It has a coffee bar that opens 7 days a week and serves approximately 400 customers a week. The church is used for normal religious purposes and for civic functions. The local schools use the church facilities and plan to use the initiative for educational purposes in projects on carbon emissions and global warming (see letters of support from schools). In particular the St Mary’s School – the church school situated next door to the church  makes frequent use of the church building. The wider community is also supporting this project. We have received letters of support from various local business organisations. The church is also used by a number of children and young peoples uniformed organisations connected with the church, such as, brownies, guides, scouts and the Church Lads and Church Girls Brigade (marching band).  Many of the Organisations and groups that are connected with the church are open to all: there is no requirement that they have to be members of or attend the church. All of these groups support the project and intend to use it as an educational tool (see letters). The local borough council has also given enthusiastic support to the project: the local energy conservation consultant from the council has been involved with the project from the beginning and we have planning approval with full backing from the council. There is also a supporting letter from the Mayor.

 Project Value

 We have applied for £13,700 (50% of the total purchase and installation cost of £27,400) from the Low Carbon Building Programme. We expect a decision from this in the near future. We have donations from the local community and the church amounting to £5,000. 

The project will provide visibility of renewable energy at work, as part of the installation cost is a sophisticated energy monitoring scheme.  This will monitor the energy being produced by the solar PV array and the Church’s energy use.  This can be viewed instantaneously by a wall-mounted display in the building, and also it may be possible to remotely view via an internet site, to be developed, (most probably part of the existing St Mary's Internet site – see www.stmarysparishchurchhinckley.co.uk ) 

The main reason for planning to put PV Panels on the church roof is because of the status of the church and its dominant position in the town centre: it is a large building, with a tower and spire visible for miles around. The core of the building dates from Thirteenth & Fourteenth Centuries, with a major restoration in the Nineteenth Century.  The installation of PV panels would make a powerful symbolic statement about the urgent need to do everything we can to reduce carbon emissions, and prevent further global warming - that renewable energy technology is an achievable way forward and a viable way to safeguard our planet.

 We will be one of the few churches in the country at present to be utilising Solar Panels, which in itself will be a significant enough story to raise awareness via press articles and people’s consciousness. 

We also plan to produce a PowerPoint presentation detailing the project from its inception to its completion. This will be available to schools, organisations and the local and wider community. We hope that this will promote interest generally  in energy reduction and carbon emissions.

 CO2 Savings Expected

 The estimated annual energy yield would be 3600kwh. This equates to 1.9 tonnes of CO2

How will the project be publicised?

To coincide with the commissioning of the panel array, we would plan another environmental day, as stated earlier. Our previous ‘Y B Green’ day successfully achieved our objective of raising awareness of the environmental issues and sharing participant’s best practice. This event will provide a focus for publicising the project: it is hoped that the local Borough Council will be involved as last time, with two officers doing workshops on environmental issues; local schools will be involved – there is a church school next to the church, and as the Vicar has strong connections several local schools it is hoped they will also participate on the day.  

The Diocese of Leicester has a full time  Communications Officer who will help with publicity in Leicestershire and beyond. The Diocesan Advisory Committee gave enthusiastic backing to the project, and a Faculty for the work  has been obtained. There has already been widespread interest in the project in the county