Chris Rowland - OVESCO & Tom Bourghton - Transition Town Chichester
Community owned PV array at Viernau. We meet the group on at Frankfurt airport and drove to Zella-Menhis, which is in the East of Germany and were are staying at the BCS college. Today we visted Viernau an an inspiring village of 2000 inhabitants, 10 km from Zella-Menhis, which has really adopted renewable energy generation. As well as re-instating a water mill to generate electricity, and making use of the local wood fuel supply, they have 3 MW of PV in two solar farms and on their buildings.
The largest solar farm is 1.6MW, which is privately owned, there is a further 400kW on local buildings and the second solar farm is a 1MW community owned system, which was funded by a community share issue. This raised 400,000 euros (65 members, each with one vote and 6% ROI after the second year) and 1 million euros from local bank finance (2.95% interest). The project pays the village council 2000 euros for land rent each year and an income from local tax, which is expected to raise 150,000 euros over twenty years.
It was estimated that the current PV systems will generate 3500 MWh per year. The current consumption of the village is 8000 MWh (housing + industry), and the intention is to meet all this demand from renewables – with the dynamic mayor behind this target we am sure that they are going to achieve this.
So could Transition Lewes and Chichester achieve the same and generate all the power they need from renewables?
Chris asked what the mayor thought about the proposed 15MW PV array planning proposal for Upper Stoneham Farm between Ringmer and Lewes. The mayor suggested that the community could offer to finance the project with part bank and part community share issue. For more information on the planning application for Upper Stoneham Farm visit the South Downs National Park planning application page and attend one of two public consultation events. The events will take place Monday 29th April 2013 at Lewes Town Hall between 3 and 8 pm and Wednesday 8th May 2013 at Ringmer Village Hall also between 3 and 8 pm.
Lee Rose - Norfolk Solar
Community owned PV array at Viernau. We meet the group on at Frankfurt airport and drove to Zella-Menhis, which is in the East of Germany and were are staying at the BCS college. Today we visted Viernau an an inspiring village of 2000 inhabitants, 10 km from Zella-Menhis, which has really adopted renewable energy generation. As well as re-instating a water mill to generate electricity, and making use of the local wood fuel supply, they have 3 MW of PV in two solar farms and on their buildings.The largest solar farm is 1.6MW, which is privately owned, there is a further 400kW on local buildings and the second solar farm is a 1MW community owned system, which was funded by a community share issue. This raised 400,000 euros (65 members, each with one vote and 6% ROI after the second year) and 1 million euros from local bank finance (2.95% interest). The project pays the village council 2000 euros for land rent each year and an income from local tax, which is expected to raise 150,000 euros over twenty years.
It was estimated that the current PV systems will generate 3500 MWh per year. The current consumption of the village is 8000 MWh (housing + industry), and the intention is to meet all this demand from renewables – with the dynamic mayor behind this target we am sure that they are going to achieve this.
So could Transition Lewes and Chichester achieve the same and generate all the power they need from renewables?
Chris asked what the mayor thought about the proposed 15MW PV array planning proposal for Upper Stoneham Farm between Ringmer and Lewes. The mayor suggested that the community could offer to finance the project with part bank and part community share issue. For more information on the planning application for Upper Stoneham Farm visit the South Downs National Park planning application page and attend one of two public consultation events. The events will take place Monday 29th April 2013 at Lewes Town Hall between 3 and 8 pm and Wednesday 8th May 2013 at Ringmer Village Hall also between 3 and 8 pm.
Lee Rose - Norfolk Solar
Jake Rendle-Worthington - Solar Aid
After a prompt start we headed up to BCS and were given an introduction on what this vocational training organisation did and the phenomenal facilities that they offer by Mr. Gerlach the Director. There are five main areas of expertise that they focus on; home economics, administration, plastics and moulding, metal work and electronics. We then were given a quick tour of the two PV systems installed at another building for this facility by Mr. Roth. The later PV system, a 30kWp system, due to cunning procurement and optimisation of feed in tarrifs having a payback of just over 5 years.
The older system showed visible signs of degradation, but was still generating decent amounts of energy. After a lunch prepared by the home economics department of BCS and consisting mainly of the German staple of reconstituted meat product we took a trip to the Solarpark at Viernau. This is a town that due to the energy and enthusiasm for renewable of the Mayor produces almost 50% of its electricy requirements from renewable technologies, mostly Solar. While this was inspiring it was hard to see how this could be replicated in the UK with the mechanisms of local government and trust of financial institutions for bankable renewable projects relative to the German model.
Andrea Berardi - Funky Renewables
In the afternoon we also had the pleasure of having a "private lesson" from the CEO of BCS who outlined the company approach regarding the integration of different technologies. From their analysis it would be possible to cost-effectively cut off the running costs of the 40%÷50% in many residential buildings, with a proper integration of thermal insulation, solar thermal and efficient heating systems like heat pumps or biomass boilers.
John Shaw - Burnley College
After a hot lunch at the centre we were taken to Viernau were a solar photo voltain farm with 4200 panels can generate up to 3MW ...about 35 % of the villages energy requirement. We meet one of the Directors who showed the farm to the group and explained the farms configuration...and the slight issue of soil erosion under the panels...as this is affecting the houses located below the farm... A solution is to grass seed the land and employ sheep to manage the grass... Simple and effective!!
We returned to the village to meet the Burgermeister, (Town Mayor) Herr Hellmann, who gave a talk on the changing ways of village life...
Dirk kindly interpreting for those of us with limited German (very limited). Following 1945, a large metal processing factory which employed 600 people was shut down and the town now has many SME's contributing to employment...from my observations there are many new and very smart houses... Mainly detached Chalet type with their own gardens... A few are in need of repair...some need much repair... Although this is to be expected in a working village of 2000 inhabitants . The Solar farm cost 1.4 million Euros to set up... 0.4 raised by a group of villagers and the remaining million Euros borrowed from the bank...interest rates of 2.39% ensure a pay back time of 5-6 years... A very good investment.
We returned to the centre for a presentation from Herr Gerlach on the best (and worst) ways to exploit renewables to ensure maximum energy efficiency and financial benefit from investments...here Dirk once again proved to be an excellent interpreter for our group...as the technical details were involved and our group questioned the Director closely on the finer points of heating systems and their relevant operating pressures and valves. The first day closed at 5.30 and we returned to our accommodation for our evening meal... Meat balls in soup... And to start our blogs.
Lui Hepworth - Brighton Energy Cooperative
David Aspin - Burnley College
Visit the BCS Vocational Training Centre. The facility has twenty seven professionals and specializes in five areas: Home Economics, Business Adminstration, Metal Engineering, Plastic Engineering and Electrical Engineering. There are sixty staff at the centre providing training for between 200 – 300 students per year. The facility is almost self sufficient with the majority of services delivered utilizing in-house resources.
The facility comprises of three building which includes the Guest House accommodation.
We had the opportunity to observe the two PV panel installations located on the roof of the facility. These were installed in 2008 & 2011 respectively. The 2008 installation generates 9KW and the 2011 installation generates just short of 30KW:
Whilst at the facility we were shown an example of a working CHP unit and the principles of the installation were explained.
We were also given the opportunity to visit the manufacturing facility.
After lunch we drove over to the Solar park at Viernau where we met the director of the plant. He explained some key facts and figures such as the total area of the 4100 PV panels (18000 SqM) which were connected to 20 KM of installed wiring. The installation was undertaken by Siemens. The outputs are: 900 – 1050 W/m2, 8000 KWH/ day, 8MW hours / day. The installation was commissioned in Feb 13.
The installation is monitored regularly to identify problems at an early stage.
The Mayor explained the funding for the site which was provided through a community venture with a loan facility from the bank for a proportion of the project cost. The interest rate agreed with the bank was 2.39%
The Mayor also explained that no further land based solar parks would be allowed in the area.
The last session of the day was a presentation by H: Gerlach this covered solar thermal and heat pumps (air & ground)
