News Article
Warwickshire Councillor Pushes Solar Solutions
One of the UK's most avid advocates for solar power is the Deputy Mayor of a town called Southam in Warwickshire. Councillor David Wise is helping to "solarise" his whole town; ever since he had PV (photovoltaic) panels installed on his roof and started making huge savings on electricity bills and carbon emissions.
"Dave is extremely keen and is encouraging everyone in the area to go solar," says Lee Summers, MD of EOS Energy, the company based in Southam which installed the councillor's PV system earlier this year. The councillor, who owns a café in Southam, was a guest speaker at the firm's open day, where he announced a scheme to turn the town into the first solo-solar-powered town in the UK, and has lost no opportunity since to enthusiastically praise the benefits of solar energy.
Mr Wise paid £10,413 for his domestic PV installation on his roof, which is so far living up to its promise to save him £200 a year on electricity bills, and generate around £800 a year income from the surplus energy which is "sold" to the national grid, under the Government's Feed-in-Tariff scheme.
"It's a great system. I recommend that anyone who can afford it should definitely consider having an array installed. Saving money and reducing my CO2 output, it's a no-brainer! I work with members of the public and the interest from people has been phenomenal. People are always asking to come and see the new system on my roof, and I'm more than happy to show it off," said the Councillor.
He added that from an ecological point of view his solar rooftop system saves the same amount of CO2 each year that a tumble dryer would produce if it was used once a day, every day for two and a half years. There are roughly 21,000 homes and commercial buildings in Southam, and its dormitory villages, which could potentially generate a huge amount of solar power for local use and to feed into the national grid.
"We can convert Southam, and then we foresee that other UK towns and cities will follow. We firmly believe that the dream of a solar-powered UK can become a reality," said Lee.
