British Gas and think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) have published a new report that argues that installing solar panels could help raise money to keep community buildings open. It concludes that village halls, churches, pubs and other community buildings could make £100 million by generating electricity through solar power.
Solar power would help cut electricity bills and generate payments through the feed-in tariff - a Government scheme which pays households and organisations for renewable power.
Research for the report showed solar panels on village halls and community centres could generate over £18 million a year, £15 million for pubs and £41 million for schools.
Gearoid Lane of British Gas said:
"As well as helping to keep local facilities open and serving their community, installing technology like solar panels on community buildings can have a great impact on helping to familiarise people with renewable technologies and make them more accessible."
Matthew Lockwood, Associate Director at ippr said:
"Micro-renewable technologies can also help the coalition Government kill two policy birds with one stone, since it wants both to be the greenest government ever and to create a big society where community organisations and volunteers play a much more important role in our lives.
"But this will not happen without the right enabling framework, and the coalition Government should maintain the feed-in tariff for renewable electricity and commit to introducing similar support for renewable heat.
"It is then for communities, working in partnership with support providers and delivery companies, to grab a piece of the opportunity that is on offer."
National Energy Action, the UK’s only fuel poverty charity, is warning prepayment meter customers to be extremely vigilant if approached with offers of cheap credit.
The warning comes after it emerged that more than 85,000 prepayment customers have been sold 'black-market' top-up credit at discounted prices, only to find that their electricity supplier can identify this illegal practice and they will have wasted their money.
Maria Wardrobe, Director of Communications for National Energy Action, said:
"The fact that so many people have been tricked or tempted by this scam illustrates the difficulties faced by prepayment customers who are often most likely to be struggling with their energy costs.
"There are currently more than 3.6 million prepayment electricity meters in Great Britain. 60% of households using these meters are classed as vulnerable and the meters are increasingly being installed for debt recovery. Last year some 250,000 electricity prepayment meters were installed in response to existing debt.
"To be charged twice for the energy after falling victim to this fraud will impose a considerable strain on those who are already unable to afford their bills and we are urging consumers to Top Up Safe, using only legitimate and recognized systems such as PayPoint or Payzone.
"We recommend that anyone who is anxious about their bills should call the Home Heat Helpline on 0800 336699. Calls are free of charge and customers should receive expert and sympathetic advice from qualified staff."
The scam involves organised criminals, often posing as supplier representatives, offering discounted credit on top-up cards. Once the payment is on the meter it can be recognized by the energy companies who are then billing for the fraudulent credit, meaning consumers are paying twice.
Gentoo has released the third instalment of its Retrofit Reality report, which details the findings of its retrofit project.
The project seeks to learn lessons for the housing sector through intensive research into the best solutions for existing stock, with the most recent report focusing on the results of its retrofit programme, showing the actual savings customers achieved against what were predicted.
The study took place in 139 households with the retrofit measures costing an average of £5,250 per property. Gentoo found that on average, customers reduced their energy usage by 25% as a result of the measures, which equated to a £105 saving on their energy bills and an 18% carbon saving.
The key finding from the project was that the assumptions used to predict carbon savings did not accurately reflect the reality for social housing customers. The research found that the energy savings which the customers involved with the trial realised were lower than those which had been predicted at the outset of the scheme.
Sally Hancox, Director of Gentoo Green, said:
"We see these outcomes very much as a positive - we believe that building an evidence base from real information will allow us to better understand the needs of our customers and enable us to adopt a more tailored approach to future retrofit schemes.
"The project was a great learning experience, it allowed us to assess how the technologies actually performed compared to how we thought they would, and helped us to understand more clearly how efficiency measures interact with the people in the property.
"To do this, we had to make sure that we matched the products we were retrofitting to the property in which they were fitted. For example, matching the sizes of solar panels to the number of people living in the property and the amount of the water they use"
While the savings were lower than predicted, 87% of customers said the felt happier as a result of the improvements made and 46% would be prepared to pay up to £5 per week for the measures installed.
The research found that attitudes towards energy saving are complex with many customers opting for increased comfort over savings.