Press release: UK’s biggest community-owned solar roof is up at UTC Aerospace Systems CTG
First project for social developer Low Carbon Hub within new FiTs regime
Oxford, 21 November 2016 ~ CTG, a Banbury-based site of UTC Aerospace Systems, is now host to the UK’s biggest community-owned rooftop solar array.
At 712kW, the 2590 panel project will generate 593,304 kWh of clean electricity every year — enough to power 150 homes — and avoid 5800 tonnes of CO2 over the 20 years of the project’s lifetime.
The project is owned and developed by Oxford-based social enterprise Low Carbon Hub and was designed and installed by Solarcentury.
What made this project work in the context of massive solar subsidy cuts, was UTC Aerospace Systems CTG’s corporate goals for carbon reductions and their willingness to see the social and environmental value of our community benefit model.
TIM CRISPBusiness Project Manager, Low Carbon Hub
UTC Aerospace Systems’ goal is to be the greenest aerospace company in the world. CTG is one of UTC Aerospace System’s 126 manufacturing sites around the world. Their Singapore facilities installed solar panels in 2015, reducing emissions by 2000 metric tons of CO2 annually, the equivalent of 1 million kg of coal burned.
Low Carbon Hub funded the upfront costs of the CTG project through a mix of loans and a community energy share offer. Other projects funded by their 2016 share offer include a 636 kWp solar project with Prodrive (also in Banbury), a 440 kWp community-owned hydro project at Sandford on Thames, and 12 solar PV projects on Oxfordshire schools.