Partnership provides solar energy in rural Cheshire
Weaver Vale Housing Trust has teamed up with Scottish Power and the Powys Energy Agency to install one of the first solar panels – for domestic use - in Cheshire.
In collaboration with Scottish Power, the Powys Energy Agency has
been identifying and installing solar water heating into selected
homes.
This is a pilot project measuring and analysing the contribution
that solar thermal energy can make to domestic energy use in
rural areas.
To date 5 systems have been installed with more in the pipeline.
Two teams of plumbers and heating engineering contractors have
been trained,
on the job, in solar water heating installations.
The solar panel is an evacuated tube system, using metal plate collectors running through vacuum tubes. The solar collectors convert direct and diffused solar radiation into heat, therefore working all year round. On bright winter days, the systems will heat the water as in the summer, on duller days it will pre-heat the water to reduce the use of conventional fuels.
The latest solar panel has been fitted at a Trust property in Tarporley, with tenant Beverley Rowlands welcoming the new fixture.
Matthew Woolley, energy efficiency officer at Weaver Vale Housing Trust, said: “We wanted to prove that solar energy really works and it will provide as much as 70% of the household's annual hot water requirement.
Malcolm Bebbington, energy efficiency manager for Scottish Power, said: “It’s important to promote the use of solar energy and that is why we have funded this project.
“At the moment, it’s quite expensive to install a solar panel but in years to come it will become cheaper.
“It took one day to install the system and it’s the first system of its kind that we have installed in Cheshire,” he added.
For further information, please call Mhari Oakes on 01606 351166 or 07971 440 752.