Solar panels installed on roof of Shirehall in Shrewsbury

More than 490 solar panels have been successfully installed on the roof of Shropshire Council’s Shirehall headquarters in Shrewsbury.

It’s anticipated that the electricity generation will supply eight per cent of the total electrical energy required to run Shirehall.  This will reduce Shropshire Council’s current electricity bill by approximately £16,000 per year with a further £1,000 from the feed-in-tariff payments. It’ll also reduce the council’s carbon footprint by approximately 7,400kg of CO₂ per year.

The total cost of the project was £180,000. As energy prices increase and the feed-in-tariff rate increases in line with inflation, it is anticipated that the panels will pay for themselves in approximately ten years – giving a financial revenue income in subsequent years.

This scheme brings the total solar energy capacity throughout the Shropshire Council estate to over 1MWp, saving approximately 2.5MWh of electricity and 1,342,000 kg CO_{2 –}equivalent to the water boiled for 123,427,950 cups of tea, or the electricity used by 520 typical houses per year since 2012.

Pictured with some of the panels is project manager Rob Leighton.

To read a recent story in the Shropshire Star about this, and see more pictures, click here.