Our Projects
Following a successful model by other community energy groups such as Plymouth Energy Community and Bath & West Community Energy, we identified pilot projects to fit solar PV on the roofs of Westfield Academy and Abbey Comunity Association's hall.
It works like this:
- We raise capital from loans and share offers such as this one
- We install a solar PV system at no cost to the schools and communities. This takes place under a 'Roof Lease Agreement'
- We sell electricity from the system to the school or community body at less than half the rate they are currently paying and guarantee to tie this to inflation for 20 years. This takes place under a 'Power Purchase Agreement'.
Your directors can report excellent progress on these pilot projects, funded by our first share offer:
- Our first share offer was fully subscribed; we achieved applications for about £285,000, and all share certificates have been issued
- Somerset County Council (the freeholder) have given their permission for the Westfield Academy project to proceed
- Westfield Academy and the Abbey Community Association have both agreed terms for roof lease and power purchase
- SSCES selected Solarsense – UK Ltd as installer for the pilot projects.
Solarsense has been in business for nearly 25 years and has just been awarded “UK Installation Company of the Year” at this year’s annual Solar Power Portal Awards. Focusing on all areas of the solar industry, the purpose of the awards is to recognise and celebrate good practice, professionalism, quality, safety and innovation, with the aim of being a marker of the brightest and best that UK solar has to offer. Solar Power Portal is the most respected publication in the UK, providing unbiased, high-quality news within the industry and the highly prestigious awards follow a rigorous assessment process where the expert judges initially narrow down hundreds of national nominations to five finalists, before naming the overall winner.
The Westfield Academy project is well advanced in its installation of solar panels (see photograph) and both pilot projects will be commissioned before the end of the year.
Next projects
The Society applied for 'pre-accreditation' for three more secondary schools in South Somerset before the facility for pre-accreditation ceased on October 1st 2016. If the applications are successful, the projects will have Feed-In Tariffs set at the date of application. this important as the Government proposes to slash the Feed-In Tariffs to an unviable level from January 1st 2016.
There is no guarantee that these applications will all be successful, but if the capital share issue exceeds the sun required for the successful applications, the Society undertakes to return the investment to subscribers without charge. This is set out in more detail in the Share Offer Prospectus (see Downlad page)
This second share offer aims to raise between £130,000 and £530,000 to install solar PV panels on up to three secondary schools in South Somerset. The three schools are:
- Preston Academy, Yeovil (estimated solar PV capacity 250 kW)
- Stanchester Academy, Stoke-sub-Hamdon (estimated solar PV capacity 115 kW)
- Holyrood Academy, Chard (estimated solar PV capacity 146 kW)
These schools were selected by a process with the following stages:
- Desktop exercise to find schools with the best disposal of roof surface
- Exclusion of schools already fitted with solar PV systems
- Narrowing down to schools with potential for a PV installation rated at between 50kW and 250kW to comply with pre-accreditation requirements
- Short-list those schools, who could respond positively in the timescale for the pre-accreditation by September 30th
The projects provide a rate of return on investment that will be sufficient to run the company and provide the investors with the expected 6% gross return on investment, and with the repayment of their capital in years 6-20.
- Preston Academy, Yeovil
Preston Academy is one of three comprehensive secondary schools in Yeovil, South Somerset and is situated to the Western end of the town.
Preston Academy comes within the area served by Scottish & Southern Electricity (SSE). SSE operates to a 45 working day response timescale, so were unable to make a firm offer of a connection prior to the pre-accreditation application. It is therefore technically the least likely of the three projects to achieve a successful pre-accreditation. However we were in receipt of an email advising what the limitations to a connection were likely to be, and this information was used to design their system and apply for pre-accreditation.
- Estimated electrical capacity 250 kW
- Estimated energy cost savings £220,000 over 20 years
- Estimated CO2 saving 2,400 tonnes over 20 years
2. Stanchester Academy, Stoke-sub-Hamdon
Stanchester Academy is situated a few miles to the West of Yeovil, under the historic roman fort of Ham Hill.
Stanchester Academy comes within the area served by Western Power Distribution (WPD). WPD were highly responsive to our enquiries and were able to make a firm offer of a connection (which we then accepted) which we could include in the pre-accreditation application. It is therefore likely in our view to achieve a successful pre-accreditation. On the basis of the connection information and their analysis of the available roof-space, Solarsense were able to design the solar PV system:
- Estimated electrical capacity 115 kW
- Estimated energy cost savings £95,000 over 20 years
- Estimated CO2 saving 1,150 tonnes over 20 years
3. Holyrood Academy, Chard
Holyrood Academy is situated in Chard, the second largest town in South Somerset.
Holyrood Academy comes within the area served by Western Power Distribution (WPD). WPD were highly responsive to our enquiries and were able to make a firm offer of a connection (which we then accepted) which we could include in the pre-accreditation application. It is therefore likely in our view to achieve a successful pre-accreditation. On the basis of the connection information and their analysis of the available roof-space, Solarsense were able to design the solar PV system:
- Estimated electrical capacity 146 kW
- Estimated energy cost savings £130,000 over 20 years
- Estimated CO2 saving 1,500 tonnes over 20 years
