Running on Sunshine! Solar Installation Completes
We regularly look at how we might make the Club more environmentally sustainable, and each year we try to identify one or two steps we can take that will help – even if only small ones. For example, last year, we replaced all of the lights in our tennis dome with LED versions, and relooked at our waste disposal to ensure more of our waste would be recycled.
For the last 9 months, we have been working through a major project to install solar power at the Club. A contractor was appointed back in January, but the global solar industry has been running flat out for the last 12 months and as a result, our installation was delayed to July/August and will now complete on the 26th of this month. So next time you are on one of the treadmills upstairs, you could literally be walking or running on sunshine!
The new installation, which sits on the roof of the Club, comprises over 660 Trina solar panels, each of which is rated at 0.42kW peak, with a total generating area of 1,292 sqm – equivalent to covering 21 squash courts or 5 tennis courts. The electricity forecast to be produced annually by the whole array will total 260,000 kWh. To put this into perspective, according to Ofgem, the typical UK household uses 2,900 kWh of electricity per annum, so the array on the Club’s roof will power the equivalent of 90 average households in the UK.
Better still, the array will prevent the equivalent of 55 tonnes of carbon emissions entering the atmosphere. This is equivalent to taking over 20 conventional cars driving 10,000 miles per annum off the road completely.
All in all, great news on our pathway towards operating a more sustainable Club. Next up, we are looking at how and when we can change our existing floodlights to LED, so that almost 100% of the Club’s lighting is LED (we are already above 95%).
