Peterborough County Council is set to give the green light to a £200 million scheme to install solar photovoltaic panels across the council’s property portfolio.
The solar contract begins this month and is set to run until December 2015. Social housing repairs and maintenance service provider Mears Group will be charged with the installation of photovoltaic solar panels in and around Peterborough, following the successful installation of 1,500 panels on the council-owned Freemans building. The vast majority of installs will be completed before the much-mooted FiT decrease in April 2012.
Although no specific sites have been announced, it is expected that any council-owned property with a suitable roof will be eligible for a solar PV array. Funding for the scheme is understood to be provided by loans taken out by the council and expected to be repaid over the next 25 years.
Councillor David Seaton, Cabinet Member for Resources, said: “I think it is becoming increasingly difficult to deliver council services within the reduced budgets so we need to look at other ways of bringing in money to the council to pay for these services.
“We are going to be cautious and only spend money if we are sure we can pay back that capital investment.
“However, this could absolutely be a great step forward in our environment capital aspirations and both myself and Environment Capital Cabinet Member, Samantha Dalton, are very excited about this.”
Mears Group was unable to comment on the news at this time.
