Journey to Net Zero - Solar Panels Update

It’s now over 15 months since our solar panels were installed on the St George’s roofs. When I look up at them from the car park, I still feel very proud of what we have achieved to reduce our Carbon Footprint, through the hard work and generosity of so many church members.

I thought this would be a good time to review how well the system has been working, and whether we are getting the benefits that we expected. So I’ve been looking at the data on our on-line dashboard to try to answer three questions:

1.       Have we generated as much electricity as we expected?

The tender document from Titan Eco estimated that we would generate 52,113 kWh each year. In 2024 we generated 50,470 kWh, which was 3% less than the estimate. Given the natural variability of sunshine, that seems like a good result so far. The chart below shows the amount produced in each month.

It all adds up to 92% of our electricity consumption at St George’s, and is equivalent to 19 average UK households!

2.       Have we saved as much CO2 as we expected?

The answer to this question is more tricky and depends on how you choose to do the calculation. If we compare our CO2 emissions with the baseline we set when we first started to plan this project, then the answer is Yes, we have saved the 9.4 tonnes of CO2 that we expected to save.

(The small print: In practice the electricity grid has got greener since we set our baseline and has done some of the work for us, but the overall result is the same.)

This has made a huge impact on our carbon footprint at St George’s which is now 36% lower than it was in 2019 (using the CofE methodology).

3.       Have we saved as much money as we expected?

This one has been a challenge! Due to the bureaucratic hurdles we had to jump over, it has taken many months for us to begin to be paid for the electricity we are exporting to the grid. Thanks to the patient work of Barrie and David from the C4C Committee, and Kim in the office, this is now resolved.

But the good news is that our prospects for savings in the future are better than we had assumed. We now know that we are self-consuming 62% of what we generate, which is much more than the 44% that we assumed. This means that we now expect to save over £10,000 per year on our current tariff, over £600 more than expected.

We have made a lot of progress in our journey to Net Zero, but there is still much to be done. Watch this space for news of future projects!