Bristol City Council will embark on a programme to install solar PV panels on up to 7,000 social homes in Bristol in a scheme which aims to save its tenants money on fuel bills while also cutting carbon. The scheme will be one of the biggest social housing PV countries since the government slashed funding for Feed-in Tariffs (FiTS) two years ago. Since then, landlords have largely shunned the solar PV sector, but the action taken by Independent Mayor George Ferguson will produce one of the largest investments in the sector in the UK since the incentives were cut in 2011.
Mareike Schmidt, Bristol City Council’s strategic energy programme manager, said that the programme was a viable investment.
“The business model is tight and price is key” Ms Schmidt said. “If you bundle panels into bigger programmes you can achieve economies of scale and drive costs down.”
The council has already posted a procurement notice tendering for contractors, installers and suppliers. The tender has been broken into four lots of which the first is that catering for the city’s social housing. This is estimated to be worth around £24 million. In order to fund the first part of the project the council will use its low borrowing rate of 3.6 percent from the Public Works Loan Board. Ms Schmidt commented that the council does expect to make a return on the Feed-in Tariff and added that she expects other landlords to join the Bristol framework with other local authorities emulating the council’s initiative.
A report outlining the plan will be presented to the council’s cabinet in early October for approval with an expectation of beginning work in January 2014.
“There is definitely a renaissance in solar PV” said Simon Green of contractor Lakehouse which is considering making a bid for the project. “Our costs have come down proportionately with the costs of PV systems, which have fallen considerably in the last 18 months. If you have sufficient economies of scale it starts making business sense again.”
The scheme, if approved, will see the city’s 28,000 social homes fitted with solar panels and follows a £4.3 million PV deal made by the Hampshire-based housing association First Wessex in August.
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