Low Carbon: Cheshire Village leads the Renewables Revolution

FREE POWER FOR PIONEERING VILLAGE HALL

Bickerton Village Hall has become the first village hall in Cheshire to receive 100% funding to install electricity producing solar panels on its roof, supplying green electricity to the National Grid and free power for the hall.

The installation by local company, The Green Electrician, of 27 photovoltaic panels will provide the village hall with an estimated 4,100kW per year, 80% of the hall's current electricity usage. The hall committee plan to make this 100% by introducing new energy efficient measures. Any electricity produced when the hall is not in use will be exported to green energy supplier, Southern Electric for 28p per kWh.

"We believe we are the first village hall in Cheshire to generate electricity for the National Grid. The contractors for the project are a local company and the panels were made locally too, we believe it will encourage our community to look at cleaner ways to power their homes and businesses. If this project could be reproduced in buildings throughout the country, the combined impact would be huge." Carol Shadbolt, Managing Trustee, Bickerton Village Hall.

Carol Shadbolt secured 100% funding for the £30,389 project from the Government's Low Carbon Buildings Programme, Community Sustainable Fund (Big Lottery Fund) and Foundation, a new northwest climate fund launched in April 2009, backed by the Northwest Regional Development Agency.

Bickerton Village Hall has a public display inside the entrance so that hall users and local school children can monitor the amount of electricity being produced and CO2 saved at any time, a figure estimated to reach 1,793kg a year.

Stephen Davies of Tushingham company The Green Electrician, said: "To get 100% funding for this community project has meant that the village hall gets free electricity and an income from the moment we connected the panels. Not only are they quietly and discreetly producing green energy, but they are also demonstrating an environmental commitment to the wider community, encouraging others to do the same."

While other villages talk about renewables projects to reduce carbon emissions, Bickerton has led the way, securing funding and advice from local professionals. Their achievement will hopefully inspire more local communities and households to investigate renewable power.