SOLAR panels… a very 21st-century solution to the crippling energy costs being faced by one of Bedfordshire’s most historic organisations.
Work has just been completed on a project to offset carbon and reduce the significant financial cost of the energy required to run The Shuttleworth Collection’s workshops, shop, restaurant, visitor centre and historic aircraft collection.
Trustees of the Richard Ormonde Shuttleworth Remembrance Trust – founded in 1944, four years after the Shuttleworth Collection’s founder Richard Ormonde Shuttleworth was killed when his Fairey Battle aircraft crashed – initiated the 21st-century solution to bring down its energy bills.
It appointed Bedford-based land and property professionals Robinson & Hall to handle the planning, practicalities and contract administration of the solar PV panels’ installation on the roofs of the collection’s buildings at Old Warden near Biggleswade.
The Shuttleworth Collection buildings are a mixture of portal frame and truss-roofed hangars dating from the 1920s-1930s to 1998. The hangars are close to a conservation area but sit outside the designated area.
Robinson & Hall commissioned engineers to assess the loadings on the buildings and to confirm that they were capable of bearing the additional imposed loads. The two hangars planned to receive the panels could do so without reinforcement, the engineers said.
The panels themselves qualified as permitted development subject to prior approval on the basis that they were roof-mounted and no higher than 20cm.
The site is close to the Collection’s airfield with views of the hangars from the public highway. To satisfy Central Bedfordshire Council that there would be no safety hazard for the airfield nor road users, a glint and glare assessment concluded no such hazard existed.
Robinson & Hall prepared and submitted a prior approval planning application, which has been approved by councillors.
“We were delighted to obtain planning consent for the solar panels, which will significantly reduce the charity’s costs and go a long way to reducing the operations’ carbon,” said David Sawford, Robinson & Hall’s head of planning, building and project consultancy.
The solar panels required electrical upgrades to the Collection’s infrastructure including its fuse capacity to be able to export the electricity produced at times of little usage. Robinson & Hall also managed the tender process, contract administration and project supervision for the electrical upgrades and installation of the PV system.
The electrical upgrades were carried out in May with one planned out of hours power shutdown to enable connections and fuses to be upgraded. The solar PV systems were installed in May and June.
One month into the production of power via the panels, the 263kwp system has offset power usage to the tune of £28,400 based on the current commercial price and has reduced the site’s carbon dioxide emissions by 6,530kg.
Robinson & Hall estimates a simple return on investment of 43% based on the current fixed commercial contract electrical rate.
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