Caerphilly County Borough Council has drawn up plans to install solar panels on more school roofs and power its meals on wheels vehicles with electricity.
The two schemes were approved at the council’s cabinet on Wednesday, February 15.
A report drawn up by officers said the two schemes could save up to almost £12,000 a year for the local authority.
On the plans for photovoltaic panels for schools, the report said: “The authority has implemented a number of photovoltaic PV schemes across its corporate buildings.
“This includes corporate offices and most recently care homes. Since 2009 there has been a programme of installing small (4kW) PV systems on schools linked to education and awareness work promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency. To date systems have been installed on 21 schools.
“The proposal for 2017/18 is to install solar PV systems on 20 schools in the county borough. It is anticipated, based on a recent tender that the systems would cost around £5,000 per school, giving a total cost of £100,000…when installed, the systems will save around £8,000 per year in school electricity.”
The scheme would eventually pay for itself after 12.5 years.
The same report also outlined how around £3,800 could be saved annually by switching four meals on wheels and countryside vehicles and a staff pool car to electric ones.
However, officers highlighted the need to install charging points at the council’s headquarters of T? Penallta and at its Tir-y-Berth depot.
Officers said: “The project would make a statement about the authority’s commitment to sustainable development and electric vehicles as part of our work for the Well-being of Future Generations Act. The one-off cost of installing two charging points is up to £4,000 and therefore the payback period is less than nine months.”
Different vehicles will be leased on a three-year basis to assess the merits of each.
Environmentally, Caerphilly County Borough Council would cut down its carbon dioxide emissions by 38 tonnes a year with the school scheme, while the charging the vehicles would increase electricity usage at T? Penallta by 0.27%.
Officers have recommended that Caerphilly Council’s cabinet approve the two schemes at a total cost of £104,000.
Fat lot of use that’ll be on a day like today. Solar panels in Wales — does anybody else see the little problem with that idea? A heck of a lot of money spent to little effect.
Sounds to me that you know very little about solar panels, they still produce electric on cloudy days and the scheme would not be based on every day being a sunny day, it would be based on an average. Any reduction on our carbon footprint is a fantastic idea and Caerphilly council should be applauded.
And where does financial responsibility come into your assessment? Two things I do know about solar panels is they are a) expensive and b) not as effective on a cloudy day as on a sunny day. We don’t get many sunny days in Wales, so we’re spending a lot of money on something that will be working inefficiently most of the time. Sorry, but that sounds like poor value for money to me.
The article says over time it will save money, so over time it is an investment and will save money. It doesn’t have to be sunny every day to still be cost effective. If it pays for itself in 12.5 and the average lifespan of solar panels is 20 to 25 years then it is good value for money. If the solar panels are installed in wales then the yearly output is an estimate of the welsh weather.
If … if … if …
If I found the end of the rainbow, I’d never worry about the bills again.
Of course the council’s going to brief that it’s going to save money. When did they ever brief anything else? You can justify anything on the assumption that it’s going to work for years on end without a problem.
The fact remains that a lot of money is going to be spent on devices that will work inefficiently most of the time. There’s a word for that sort of thing: “white elephant”, which is to say the money could almost certainly be better spent, producing better value for money, in some other way.