Moor Field: solar POWER project

Many thanks to the trustees of Sponne and Bickerstaffe Charity for sending in a case study on the completion of the solar power installation with the help of an Almshouse Association interest free loan.

About the Charity

In 1445, Archdeacon William Sponne, the Rector of Towcester, died and through his will a Charity was formed to benefit the residents of Towcester in various ways.  In 1689 Towcester-born Thomas Bickerstaffe, who became a successful merchant in London, founded a charity to lease a piece of land and built three “Alms-Houses for the labouring poor of Towcester”.

The Sponne and Bickerstaffe charities were merged in 1782 and other bequests of land and money were received over the years.  The original almshouses were maintained and added to, but began to fall into disrepair and in 1982 the site was sold.  At that time, the charity owned a parcel of land on the (then) outskirts of Towcester.  Part of this land was sold to a housing developer and the proceeds of the sale were used to build the current almshouse complex, Moor Field, on the remainder of the land.

Profitable and low-carbon electricity almshouses

Moor Field consists of 12 self-contained bungalows heated by electric storage heaters and a house for the on-site warden.  There is also a separate communal room, a kitchen and a laundry room housing washing machines and tumble dryers.  The common rooms are used by the 15 residents for social events and by the Charity Trustees for its monthly meetings.  Other community groups from Towcester also use the common room for their activities.

The bungalows’ storage heaters were becoming more expensive to run (especially over the last 18 months) and accounted for a significant part of the site’s carbon footprint. For many years the Trustees anguished over what to do to modernise the heating methods and to make Moor Field more environmentally sustainable.

In 2021 we were lucky enough to receive a grant from the (now closed) Rural Communities Energy Fund (RCEF) to carry out an energy audit of Moor Field.  We used this grant to engage the energy and environmental consultants Ricardo to perform an in-depth energy survey, to recommend a way forward to provide a cost effective and low-carbon solution to the heating problem and to identify potential sources of grants to fund the recommended scheme.

Ricardo quickly confirmed something we suspected – several of the residents could not keep their homes warm enough in winter.  This is a serious situation for the almshouse residents who can be elderly and not very mobile.  Clearly, we needed to do something.  Ricardo’s project recommended that we address this problem by replacing the storage radiators with air source heat pumps (ASHP) and installing a photovoltaic (PV) solar cell system to provide electricity for use by the site.

The cost of implementing these measures would have exceeded the reserves of the Charity (and indeed those of many almshouses) so Ricardo and the Charity’s trustees investigated sources of grant funding.  Unfortunately, it quickly became apparent that Government grants at the time excluded social housing which was a big stumbling block to Moor Field.

In early 2022, with ever increasing electricity prices, the Moor Field Trustees decided we needed to do something, and that our first priority was to install solar panels to help negate the effects of the energy crisis we were going through at the time.

Sourcing funding and inviting tenders

In mid 2022, we investigated many other funding options, and concluded that The Almshouse Association interest free loan would be our best option. With further support from Ricardo, we quickly formulated a tender specification and contacted several companies and invited them to tender for the work.  Next we completed our application (with much help from The Almshouse Association staff) and were able to demonstrate that the project was cost-effective using our preferred contractor.

As part of the application process, The Almshouse Association required a business plan along with financial modelling of the scheme.  Once again, The Almshouse Association’s financial forecasting template and advice from The Almshouse Association staff proved invaluable.  Our plan was to use the savings from reducing the amount of power bought in from the grid along with the sale of any surplus power to the grid to repay The Almshouse Association loan.  The remaining profits would be shared between the charity and the residents. Fortunately, our application to The Almshouse Association was successful and we were able to proceed with the project.

With help from Ricardo we analysed the tenders and settled on the quote from Cahill Renewables who quoted for a 42 kW Solar PV array with the option of adding battery storage at a later date.

The installation

In early May we accepted the quote and paid the deposit and an installation date of 31 July 2023 was agreed.  Cahill Renewables arrived on time on 31 July and the installation was completed by Wednesday 2 August.  We were very pleased with the standard and quality of work. Carhill Renewables were very considerate of our residents and as you can see from the photograph provided a very neat and professional installation.

We started generating electricity on 2 August and early indications based on the first two months suggest a site saving of £15/day.  This will increase once the paperwork to allow payments for exported power is completed (this process can take up to two months to complete).

The next steps

Over the coming months we will start to see the financial benefits of the PV scheme and to share the benefits between the charity and the residents.

Meanwhile, we are continuing to search for grants to fund the ASHP scheme while the trustees weigh the benefits this will bring in terms of vastly-reduced heating costs and lower carbon emissions against the risks of being an ‘early adopter’ of this relatively new technology.

In conclusion, we would certainly recommend that other almshouses consider installing PV power – warmer residents and a lower carbon footprint!

UPDATE! This month (October/November 2023) we have been able to reduce our resident’s day rate for electricity by 5p per unit .

posted 7 November 2023