Pagham Village Hall has 87 solar panels installed onto its roof

Pagham Village Hall has had 87 solar panels built on its roof after receiving a grant of just under £10,000.
87 solar panels have recently been installed at Pagham Village Hall. Picture courtesy of Pagham Village Hall Trust SUS-191202-14094800187 solar panels have recently been installed at Pagham Village Hall. Picture courtesy of Pagham Village Hall Trust SUS-191202-140948001
87 solar panels have recently been installed at Pagham Village Hall. Picture courtesy of Pagham Village Hall Trust SUS-191202-140948001

Philip Coleman, chairman of Pagham Village Hall Trust, said the hall has a large south-facing roof and is situated on the edge of a village with the ‘best sunshine record on the English mainland – ideal for solar power’.

He added: “The trustees decided to invest some cash reserves in a sustainable energy system in order to reduce the Hall’s carbon footprint and to reduce future electricity bills and generate an income through the feed-in tariff, which is paid for exporting electricity to the grid.

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“The solar panels form a 23.6Kw photovoltaic system, with estimated payback within six years, based on predicted performance and feed-in tariff calculations.”

Phillip said the project was researched and managed by trustee and former civil engineer John Carr after it was ‘supported by a grant of £9,879 from the Inspire Leisure Grant Fund’.

He added: “The solar panels were installed by Arundel-based Trienergy Solutions Ltd at short notice in the run-up to Christmas in order to beat an end-of-year reduction in the feed-in tariff for new installations.

“They achieved this with no disruption to the operation of the busy village hall.

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“It is early days to know whether the predicted payback will be achieved, but we can see that on days of strong sunshine, we are meeting nearly all our day-time electricity requirements from the solar panels and generating a healthy surplus to export to the grid.”