'London's largest social housing PV scheme' to save council tenants £140 a year

Published by Ross Macmillan for 24dash.com in Housing

Some 1,000 council tenants in Walthamstow are set to see nearly £140 shaved off their annual energy bills as part of "London's largest social housing PV scheme".

ALMO Ascham Homes - which manages 12,400 homes on behalf of Waltham Forest Council - is planning to deliver the scheme before March 2012 to take advantage of the higher Feed-in Tariff rates.

The ALMO has appointed John Rowan and Partners as project managers with contractors Apollo and Breyer Plc.

Tenants in homes with the solar PV scheme installed can use the electricity being generated from their system for free, in addition to the council being made one of the electricity providers for all of the electricity produced.

This will enable the initial cost of the installation works, approximately £7,000 per home, to be repaid over the life of the scheme.

Ascham Homes will act as the council’s agent for the management and maintenance of the solar scheme over its 25 year life, ensuring that electricity payments are received, monitoring the scheme, commissioning any repairs and ensuring that the business plan is operated effectively.

David Barrett, head of retrofit at John Rowan & Partners, said: “With many of the issues surrounding the Green Deal still up in the air, it is great to see projects like this moving forward. Not only will this improve the carbon footprint of the existing housing stock, but it will also deliver significant benefits to the residents involved.  

“While the focus is to complete the 1,000 home installations to gain a year’s higher rate on the Feed In Tariff, a matter that will be determined on the 9th February with the outcome of DECC’s appeal, I would also hope that it also acts as encouragement to other affordable housing providers to show them that projects like this are commercially viable.

“I for one are convinced that going forward PV panels will be part of the solution for affordable housing to deliver their obligations under the Climate Change Act.”

Paul Lowenberg, chair of Ascham Homes, said: “We are delighted to have entered into this partnership agreement with the council. It is designed to achieve three key objectives. First it will assist approximately 10% of our tenants by reducing their electricity bills by 25 to 50%.

"Second, it will reduce the carbon dioxide emitted in producing electricity for these homes by approximately 1200 Tons of CO2. This is like taking 500 cars off our roads.

"Third, we hope over the 25 year life of the scheme it will achieve a savings of £1 to £2 million through the price of the electricity being sold back to the grid, which will enable other regeneration works to be undertaken in the borough."