With the sun recovering its boldness today, solar rays have provided 76% of the energy at one of our biggest community-owned solar builds – Ore Valley College near Hastings.
BEC’s 1000-odd BYD solar panels at Ore Valley have been flexing their muscle all day today (Thursday 27th June), throwing power at our seven SolarEdge inverters which have produced a total of 1.31mWh. This clean solar energy has been powering the College’s realistic working environments, workshops and ‘live build’ areas, where students build, wire, plumb, fit-out and decorate a full-size house in the central atrium. Clean electricity is also fed to the diner and coffee shop.
Since completing the system in March the system has saved 30 tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of planting 103 trees.
Solar Production and consumption at Ore Valley today (electricity imported from the grid is in red)
This has dramatically reduced the College’s reliance on the grid. Less than a quarter of the College’s power has come from outside the building today and more than three quarters has come from its roof. A sensible solution to anyone’s energy needs, we reckon.
And that’s had a financial impact too. The solar system has saved £25 on its electricity bills today. With an expected generation of 237MW each year, we’ll be saving the College more than £5000 a year – and for the next 25 years.
Many thanks to the hundred people who invested in the Ore Valley system – including fifty from Hastings with our partner Energise Sussex Coast. We look forward to a sunny summer, and will keep you posted on how are systems are performing over the summer!
BEC believes in getting solar on our schools and educational buildings. We’ve a whole raft of community-owned solar builds coming up – see pages 3-4 of our share offer document here, To date we’ve raised more than £700,000 for our solar schools programme; to join BEC click here.
