Bungay church goes green

Beccles church's green dream nears completion.

DAN HAYNES

29 November 2009

Pioneering Christians in Bungay are nearing completion on a £100,000 plan to make their church greener.

Emmanuel Church is undergoing a carbon reduction project that will see solar panels installed on the roofs of the church halls to power the buildings.

The church has already been kitted out with more energy-efficient convector heaters and it is planned that the solar panels will be fitted by the spring.

Graham Gibbs, a church member who is a heading the project, said he thought it would be the only church in the area to be using solar power.

The solar panels will be going on the roofs of the two church halls that lie at the back of the church in Rose Lane, but will also power the church. There will be 220 photovoltaic panels in total, which will replace some of the slates on the roofs.

The church chose to pay around £20,000 extra to buy panels to replace the slates, rather than more conspicuous ones that lie on the top.

There will also be a digital display unit in one of the halls to communicate exactly how much power is being generated and how much is being saved, as well as totals for the year. The panels will produce 11.44kw, an average of 10,000 units of electricity each year.

So far 50pc of the money required to install the solar panels has been raised through a grant from the Low Carbon Building Programme, and church members are now being asked for interest-free loans, while the search is on for grants.

The solar panels alone will cost in the region of £80,000, but Mr Gibbs is confident they will be installed by March.

Members have already raised £22,000 to the church heaters with a modern more efficient system of convector heaters, which were installed in August. They need to be on for less than half the time that the old heating system did.

Secondary glass on the windows has been fitted to keep the heat in and low energy light bulbs are used.

Mr Gibbs said that the project had been welcomed by most groups in the town, including the town council, the Rotary Club, and Sustainable Bungay, which is looking to lower the town's carbon footprint.

“It's been a massive project,” said Mr Gibbs. “We want it to be used as an example to the town. If householders can see our system working they might put a similar array on their roofs. Then we're getting somewhere. I firmly believe that in this planet of ours we've got to do something to get away from carbon fossil fuels.”