London Mayor Targets Solar Schools

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London Mayor Boris Johnson plans to make solar schools, fitting rooftop solar panels on existing schools. This represents one of the priorities in his public sector energy retrofit program, titled RE:FIT.

This ambitious program is meant “to help accelerate reduction of energy use, cutting energy bills, and helping the delivery of the Carbon reduction targets for London’s public buildings.”

Boris-refit_cropped
“This innovative procurement model has cut out all the time delays and hassles for public sector organisations. We have tested it… so we know it delivers the goods.” Boris Johnson, Mayor of London (left)

According to the RE: FIT website:

“RE:FIT is the Mayor of London’s award-winning scheme to provide a commercial model for public bodies wishing to achieve substantial financial cost savings, improve the energy performance of their buildings and reduce their CO2 footprint.”

The goal sounds great; paying for it all is another matter. According to RE:FIT, the school program is supported by Salix Finance, a not-for-profit company funded by the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC), and the Welsh and Scottish governments, which can provide interest free loans to participating schools for up to 100% of the project value.

On the sobering side of this grand plan, solar school proponents also must confront the reality of available sunny days in London. While solar power might provide a seemingly inexhaustible source of electricity, UK energy utility EDF Energy points out the limitations in the technology and the UK’s climate for making the most of solar:

“The UK lies at a relatively high latitude, where it is generally less sunny and the sun is not as high in the sky as it is near the equator,” writes EDF Energy in answering “How much sunlight can the UK harness?”. “London receives 0.11 kilowatts of sunshine per square metre (kW/m2) on average, compared with 0.19 kW/m2 for Athens, which is nearer the equator, and 0.24 kW/m2 for Cairo, which is nearer still.”

Even facing the limitations of latitude, solar experts last year predicted some 10 million UK homes will have rooftop solar panels by 2020.

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There is also the significant challenge of reducing carbon emissions, one of the leading goals for RE: FIT. 

“Given DECC’s previous success, finding further carbon was always going to be challenging,” said Karen Dell, DECC’s head of sustainability. “The RE:FIT programme brought fresh ideas to this challenge and the support of the RE:FIT Programme Delivery Unit was very helpful.”

It is not yet apparent how a renewed focus on school solar systems will be financed. London Assembly Green Party member Jenny Jones said in a statement that it is “still unclear what this means in practice. Is the Mayor putting in place new resources, or does he expect it to be delivered from existing energy saving retrofit programmes, which are also desperately needed.”

As for a reality check, research published earlier this year shows 200 schools have adopted low carbon improvements as part of the RE:FIT program. But none of these particular schools is planning to install solar panels. According to Business Green, Jones’ data suggests only one in 15 London schools was benefiting from solar PV.

For those wanting to know more about this endeavor, RE: FIT provides a number of case studies concerning UK project work.

Sources: Business Green, RE:FIT

Image via RE:FIT


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Glenn Meyers

is a writer, producer, and director. Meyers was editor and site director of Green Building Elements, a contributing writer for CleanTechnica, and is founder of Green Streets MediaTrain, a communications connection and eLearning hub. As an independent producer, he's been involved in the development, production and distribution of television and distance learning programs for both the education industry and corporate sector. He also is an avid gardener and loves sustainable innovation.

Glenn Meyers has 449 posts and counting. See all posts by Glenn Meyers