The idea
Scouts prepare young people with skills for life. Everyone is welcome and in 1st Upton we have 3 sections and support over 65 children every week ages ranging from 6 – 14. We ensure that everybody has an opportunity to take part in our activities, we keep our charges to a minimum and support families experiencing financial hardship.
Our Scout Hut is used extensively and not just for Scouting. We host many other community activities including dog behaviour classes and martial arts. We are a core community hub and have an ambition to continue providing a low-cost facility for our community. Utility costs, however, are rising so to safeguard our provision from ever increasing energy and operational costs we are crowdfunding to purchase solar panels.
Our scouting group will engage in fundraising activities and we’ll focus part of our educational activities on reducing carbon emissions, and supporting the green agenda through building strong foundations in our young people.
What we'll deliver
- Supply, installation of a 10.56kWp solar photovoltaic system
- 24 x Longi 440W all black Solar Panels with 24 x S440 SolarEdge Optimisers
- 1 x SolarEdge 10kW Energy Bank
- Educational sessions on carbon reduction with young persons
Why it's a great idea
We anticipate the solar panels will allow us to reduce our carbon emissions by 1.43 tonnes p.a. and is expected to reduce our energy bills by up to 80% which will allow us to continue to deliver low cost (£12 per child per month for a 70-minute weekly session) high quality activity for young people.
The PV panels will create efficiencies, but the battery is needed to ensure we can utilise all of the energy produced and filter it back into the centre. Being able to store the energy will even out our energy consumption over the winter months.
The battery will enhance numerous economic and social benefits such as reducing ongoing running costs, contributing to the climate emergency, providing an affordable community facility for hirers, maintaining a warm and welcoming environment.
Steps to get it done
- Contract Award
- Installation of PV panels
- System commissioning
- Delivery of environmental education
The battery will allow us to balance the energy generated during the day with the usage during the evenings when most of our young person sessions are run. This would allow us to optimise and modify our electric usage to save money on grid-based electricity throughout the seasons of the year – just as we do with our gas thermostats.
