I was fortunate this week to be invited to the South West Net Zero hub Energising Britain event. It was a very positive event with some excellent celebratory case studies.
So it seemed a good moment in time to look at the impact of our volunteer run Community Solar discount scheme. We have detailed installation records since June 2021, so five years of cumulative impact data.
In that time our scheme has saved :-
- 320+ tonnes of Carbon *
- Equivalent to 3000+ trees five years ago**
- Equivalent to 1000+ short haul flights ***
- for an investment of under £250 from our town council for marketing materials. ****
It really shows the power of a small dedicated base of enthusiastic volunteers working on a specific focussed project!
The ebbs and flows of the scheme have largely followed geopolitical energy shocks leading to a busy start to this year, with three more installations going in over the next couple of weeks. We have worked closely with the same trusted local installer, Beazer Electrical, since 2022. Our partnership with other local sustainability groups continues.
If you are in Chippenham or the surrounding towns and villages and would like free advice for your home or small business regarding a solar or battery installation, and a free no obligation quote, then please fill out the form on our Community Solar web page.
*this is calculated using the Energy Saving Trust figure of 1.42 tonnes of CO2 for a typical 4kWp rooftop system accumulated over the number of days since each installation was commissioned
**It is always an approximation to calculate equivalent trees planted. So this comparison assumes 20kg of CO2 per year absorbed by relatively early stage growth trees planted for five years, giving 100kg sequestered Carbon per tree in five years.
***An assumption of 300kg of CO2 for a return short haul flight
**** We have received funding from Chippenham Town Council’s Community Environmental forum of circa £250 for printed materials and marketing of our scheme. (The Town Council have generously funded other Zero Chippenham projects in this time frame). Almost every other operational aspect of our scheme is due to the free time and energy given by Zero Chippenham volunteers. I mention this figure as one of the case studies presented at the Energising Britain event had received funding of 4 million to produce only a slightly higher carbon reduction than our scheme. The community impact of that scheme went far beyond carbon sequestration, but it was the catalyst for me to check our own five year impact figures. I don’t think there are many, if any schemes, that could claim over 1 tonnes of CO2 saved for every £ spent!