Telford village invests in solar panels
A village in Telford has invested in the latest energy-saving technology with state-of-the-art solar panels.
Little Wenlock Village Hall is now storing surplus energy generated by its solar panels during the day into a newly installed battery that is used to power the hall during at night.
The system automatically uses energy stored in the battery rather than the mains supply and aims to save the committee that runs the hall money, as well as lower the community's carbon footprint.
The village hall committee, which first installed standard solar panels in 2012, said it hopes other communities will develop a similar sustainable energy source.
"We will be making the performance data automatically logged by our system widely available to communities, organisations and individuals considering renewable energy storage alongside generation," said Howard Betts, project coordinator.
"We have chosen an easily expandable system which enables us to assess the technology at a scale we can afford from our reserves and upgrade it as we quantify the savings and are able to finance its development.
"Just like local food, we see local renewable energy generation and storage playing a major role in reducing carbon emissions and mitigating climate change in the years ahead. In our small way, we want to be part of this solution.
“We look forward to sharing our results as widely as possible and, of course, to reducing our own carbon footprint and hall running costs.”
