npower reports solar cells gives National Trust museum the power to generate its own income

WEBWIRE – Monday, November 8, 2010

npower has reported that one of the UK’s largest installations of photo-voltaic (PV) cells on a historic building* has been fitted to the roof of the National Trust’s carriage museum at Arlington Court near Barnstaple in Devon.

The 113 m2 installation will generate up to 6.3 megawatt hours (mWh) of energy each year, saving the museum about £600 from its electricity bill and generating income of around £2,270 per year by feeding energy back into the grid.**

The project has been funded by sales of National Trust Green Energy which is supplied by the charity’s energy partner, npower, and raises money to support low and zero carbon energy savings projects at Trust properties.

So far 25 National Trust properties have benefited from the partnership with npower with solar panels biomass boilers and ground source heat pumps helping generate energy and save money on fuel bills, as the Trust works towards its commitment to cut its overall energy demand by 20 per cent by 2020 and to switch to renewable energy.***

The installation will also help protect the historic carriages in the museum, with the cells helping to reduce the amount of ultraviolet light that enters the building.

The completion of the work comes at the same time as the Trust and npower announce the extension of their partnership for another two years.

npower spokesperson Matthew Cole, commented: “It’s great that customers who choose National Trust Green Energy are getting to see these big investments in renewable energy technologies at their favourite Trust places. The new agreement means more customers can get green electricity and we’ll be able to improve the carbon footprint of more Trust properties.”

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Notes to Editors
- * The size of the PV cells at Arlington Court are 113 m2, the second largest PV installation of National Trust buildings, the first being the Trust’s central office, Heelis, in Swindon, of 1306 m2
- ** The installed capacity of the array is 8.9 kWp, generating about 6.3 MWh of electricity per year. It is likely that most of the electricity generated will be used on site, off setting about £600 of grid electricity and FIT income should be about £2270 per year. The work was carried out by Solar Technologies.
- This project could not have been completed without the support of npower through the npower/NT Green Energy Fund. The Trust has been working in partnership with npower since 2007 offering a product called ’National Trust Green Energy’ which is electricity that is matched from 100 per cent renewable sources and it costs the same as npower’s standard electricity.
*** For more information on how the National Trust is tackling its energy consumption visit: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-energy-report-2010.pdf

About npower:
- npower is one of the UK’s largest electricity suppliers and has 6.6 million customer accounts across the UK.
- npower sponsors The Football League
- npower has been awarded platinum status in Business in the Community’s CR Index and is one of twenty-nine companies to have achieved the CommunityMark since its launch. All CommunityMark achievers have been recognised for demonstrating excellence in their holistic and strategic approach to community investment.

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