West Sussex County Council has awarded Anesco an operations and maintenance contract for solar farms and solar panels installed on domestic properties and commercial buildings across the region.
The council is broadening its energy activities and has launched a not-for-profit domestic energy supplier, under the Your Energy Sussex name. The supplier is a ‘white label’ arrangement operated by Nottingham’s Robin Hood Energy. The council also has reduced power costs for 200 social housing tenants in Crawley with solar panels installed on homes owned and maintained by Crawley Homes. The panels provide tenants with free, clean electricity to use during the day. Your Energy Sussex uses the income received through feed-in-tariffs to pay back the cost of installing the systems.
The ‘Your Energy Sussex’ programme aims to increase the amount of renewable energy being generated and used in the county. That includes a solar farm on council land, capable of powering more than 2,400 homes; a large-scale battery storage system; and the installation of roof top solar PV schemes on more than 60 schools.
Your Energy Sussex is also the UK partner in the EU-funded BISEPS (Businesspark Integrated Sustainable Energy Packages) project. It aims to develop an energy model that will help business parks in the UK to use sustainable energy technology and reduce their energy costs and carbon emissions. Business parks have been chosen as the focus of this project because their size makes them a good fit for sustainable energy solutions, such as solar PV, heat pumps, combined heat and power installations and smart grids.
Your Energy Sussex is working with businesses in the Manor Royal business improvement district in Crawley to demonstrate the model. The other demonstration sites are in Breda, West Flanders and Lille, France.
Chris Colley, director of operations & maintenance at Anesco, commented: “We are delighted to be working with West Sussex County Council. The YES scheme is not only having a positive effect on the lives of many residents in Sussex, but is contributing to lower carbon emissions and having a positive impact on the environment.”