St. Anne’s Church

Solar PV • Site-owned • Completed September 2016

About

PUNL began speaking to St. Anne’s Church in Highgate in late 2015 as they were considering solar panels as part of a refurbishment project. The Church hoped to create more space for community activities including their successful community lunches and a youth project, meaning more daytime use when solar energy could be utilised.

Funding & delivery

In November 2015 Power Up North London was awarded a grant of £12,100 from the Urban Community Energy Fund (UCEF) to cover feasibility costs for one or more solar projects in North London. Given the potential benefits of solar to the Church and surrounding community PUNL agreed in early 2016 to use some of the UCEF funding to explore the feasibility of a 19kWp installation on the south facing roof.

As the Church is listed and in a conservation area, a large part of this feasibility work involved putting together a planning application which was approved in July 2015. This was largely down to the support of the 106 residents who sent comments in favour of the application – so thank you to everyone who has supported the project!

This video describes the development and delivery of the St Anne’s project which was the first site installed by PUNL

Benefits & impact

The installation of 19kWp of solar PV on the south-facing roof of St. Anne’s benefited the church and surrounding community while contributing to wider efforts to cut carbon.

  • The panels generate an estimated 16.5 MWh of clean energy a year, which equates to an annual reduction in carbon emissions of around 7 tonnes
  • The church benefits from discounted energy through a power purchase agreement with Power Up North London
  • Parishioners and members of the local community benefit from a small return on their investment while being given the opportunity to invest for social and environmental benefit
  • Any surplus income would be put into PUNL’s Community Energy Fund, which would be available for further projects in the local area
  • The panels would be a community asset that could be used for educational purposes and to encourage others to explore renewable energy

Project deliverables

Planning permissionPermission was obtained in July 2016
DNOThe District Network Operator (UKPN) approved the connection in April 2016.
On-site demandOn-site electricity consumption was low to start with and was expected to go up as there were plans to introduce more daytime activities.
Feed-in tariffThe site benefits from the feed-in tariff and was registered in October 2016.
Share offerIn August 2016 PUNL launched a successful share offer to raise £30,100 for purchase of the solar panels.
InstallationThe panels were installed by Joju Solar in October 2016. As of the first week of July 2020, the panels had produced 31 MWh of electricity and earned £9,758.
Performance monitoring