Community hall's energy bills cut thanks to solar-powered Christmas lights

Pant Memorial Hall is seeing its energy bills "massively" reduced thanks to the solar-powered lights.

This is thanks to support from Ellesmere-based electrical, plumbing, heating and renewable energy contractors, Princes LHS, who have installed a 24-panel solar array on its roof along with a battery to store excess energy.

Planning for the installation started well before the current hike in energy prices but now the charity’s committee is grateful that the solar panels will help keep electricity prices down in the future.

Shaun Fisher, treasurer at Pant Memorial Hall, said: “Electricity is the biggest expense for our hall and our hirers pay for it in their booking fees. By storing electricity generated during the day we are able to use this during the evening when most of our events take place.

“Now we are using the same system to power our external Christmas lights which we hope will be enjoyed by visitors and the local community.”

Thanks to support from the Postcode Local Trust, a grant-giving charity funded entirely by players of the People’s Postcode Lottery, Pant Memorial Institute received a grant of £20,000 for the solar panels, batteries, and associated works.

According to Shaun there is already some benefit of the solar panels visible through the hall’s electricity bills.

He said: “It’s early days but in the last couple of months we have seen a massive reduction in the amount of electricity we have had to buy. That’s good not only for the hall’s finances but also it means we are running on almost zero carbon energy, which is great for the environment too.”

Matt Smith of Princes LHS added: “We are really pleased that we have been able to give something back to the people of Pant by way of sponsoring the Christmas lights at the hall. Not only have we installed solar panels on the Memorial Hall but also on a number of properties in the village.”