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Providing Solar Power to Great Places Housing Group

Providing Solar Power to Great Places Housing Group Picture
Monday 11th July 2011

Tenants in Salford observed the installation of the first electricity-generating solar panels trialled by Great Places Housing Group in partnership with Cruden Energy Solutions to see if they save money and help the environment.

The group, one of the first housing associations to harness photovoltaic (PV) panel technology, is fitting panels to 100 of its homes. If they work well, panels will be added to many more homes.

A variety of house types and locations, including many in Salford and Blackpool, are being included in the £1m pilot. Panels could save householders £150 to £200 on fuel each year. Great Places will sell any surplus power that residents don't use to the grid, ploughing proceeds back into services.

Installation, carried out by Cruden Energy Solutions, will cost Great Places £8,000 to £10,000 per property. This money will be recouped over about 20 years through the government's Feed-in Tariff scheme.

Stephen Porter, chief executive of Great Places Housing Group, said: "We need to find out how effective the panels are, so that we will know whether it is practical to use them much more widely.

"We are choosing a hundred varied homes so that we can try a mix of property types and orientations. The benefits of this research in the long-run could be great – we are one of the first housing associations to try out this technology."

Porter continued: "Our aim is to make our properties as 'green' as possible and as affordable to run as possible, rather than to generate money from selling electricity.

"A typical installation can save around 1 tonne of carbon emissions per year – about a third of the total emissions related to a property."

The panels themselves should have a life span of more than 25 years and will need minimal maintenance by Cruden.

For more information about Cruden Energy Solutions please contact Jonathan Hill on 0161 868 1700.






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