Reading Community Energy Society and Reading Borough Council fund installation at Reading City Library

Background

In Summer 2016 Reading Community Energy Society launched an opportunity to buy shares in solar panels that would be put on local community centres. Local people were invited to invest in the scheme.

Sixteen local community buildings put their roofs forward to receive solar panels. Each roof chosen would be able to earn via the feed in tariff and in doing so generate a community fund to help vulnerable people in Reading. The community buildings also had the added benefit of lowering their energy bills. Reading Library was one of the successful buildings chosen.

The System

A 28.86kWp system with 111 panels and one Solis inverter was installed in September 2016 by Joju. It  was mounted on a synthetic slate roof. We also installed an export meter, which will be used to bill the council for the energy consumed on site.

The Challenges

There were several logistical and real challenges when installing on Reading Library not least the fact the installation was taking place right in the centre of the city.  The scaffolding alonre took a week to erect, the installation just three days in comparison. Getting the scaffolding up safely, getting materials unloaded safely and up on to the roof on working building that remained opened to the general public throughout demonstrated Joju’s ability to project manage the most difficult of installs. In practical terms this required our Project Manager Ed Baughan having lots of  discussions with and achieving key sign off from Reading Council. An independent Health &  Safety Consultant was used to assess our proposal and work.

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