Solar PV • PUNL-owned • Completed March 2019
About
Caversham Group Practice (CGP) is an established teaching and training practice in the London borough of Camden with 15,000 registered patients. They have a full complement of attached staff and they run a number of outreach specialist clinics that enable them to provide convenient and rapid access to specialist NHS services.
The project aim was to install 30kWp of PV solar panels on the south and west facing roofs of the practice to deliver environmental, social and financial benefits.
Funding & delivery
PUNL approached CGP about this project through a mutual contact in the Kentish Town Transition Group. PUNL applied to the GLA for a grant to undertake the feasibility study and were awarded £12,940 through the London Community Energy Fund in February 2018.
After securing the GLA grant, PUNL project managed this study. We established that the building has a suitable EPC rating to attract the feed-in tariff and a roof that could comfortably bear the load of the proposed solar panels. PUNL worked with CGP on the legal arrangements underlying the roof lease. The discussions were extended by the need to obtain consent from their mortgage lender. We also participated in two community engagement events to reach out to local residents and to create awareness of the project.
In January 2019 PUNL launched a community share offer and successfully raised £28,300 to pay for the solar panels that were installed in late March the same year. Since then, the site has been registered for the feed-in tariff and the panels are performing well.
PUNL has a monitoring contract for the panels and this will mean their output will be regularly monitored to check they are working at the correct level.
Benefits & impact
CGP has a very engaged patient participation group, whose purpose is to foster effective communication between the practice and its patients. They also run regular community events to support good nutrition, health and wellbeing. This initiative is a positive step in building further community cohesion through a shared interest in the environmental benefits of renewable energy and also the opportunity for patients to invest in a local community share offer. This project also delivered annual savings in electricity costs for CGP and carbon savings of 6.3 tonnes a year.
Project deliverables
| Planning permission | Permission was not required as the site fell under the permitted development category |
| EPC certificate | Obtained in May 2018 – EPC rating C61 |
| DNO | The District Network Operator (UKPN) approved the connection on 31 July 2018 |
| Structural survey | The roof structural survey was conducted in April 2018 and concluded that the roof had sufficient strength to take the additional load from the solar panels |
| On-site demand | Consumption at the Practice was high and it was expected to use 90% of the solar electricity generated |
| Feed-in tariff | The site was registered for the feed-in tariff |
| Share offer | PUNL launched a successful community share offer in January 2019 to raise funds for the solar panels. 42 investors invested £28,300 within 10 days. |
| Installation | Joju Solar installed the panels and the project was completed in late March 2019. As of July 2020, the panels had produced 41.6MWh of electricity. |
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