Residents of the Aging Miners project in Northumberland will benefit from the installation of free solar PV systems.

Local charity, the Northumberland Aged Mineworkers Homes Association, is fitting the solar arrays across the retired miners’ homes in an attempt to help lower their energy bills.

The project will see over 400 homes fitted with solar, totalling around 1MW of capacity. The installs will be carried out by Wickford-based energy efficiency company, Saving Energy.

Grant Speller, renewable energy manager at Saving Energy said: “The retired miners are all very positive about the work going on here and are keen to benefit at a time when energy bills are soaring.”

The project is predicted to generate around 1,038,800kWh of electricity annually which residents will be free to consume. Simon Baggaley, UK sales director at Enphase, whose microinverters were used in the installs, said: “It has been great to work together with Saving Energy on a project like this, which makes affordable energy available to the retired miners’ community.”

The charity will receive all the associated income from the feed-in tariff, with all profits from the scheme being reinvested into the properties.