The scheme is designed to provide the UK education sector’s decision makers with insight and inspiration on the potential financial, educational and environmental benefits of renewable technology.
Named the “Conergy Solar on Schools Program”, the initiative is part of the company’s commitment to working with educational facilities across the country — including nursery, primary, secondary and academy schools, along with private, public, further education and universities — to deliver a plain English introduction to solar.
The no upfront cost initiative, which can generate significant savings, will provide stakeholders with access to energy-use and cost savings analysis; the installation and life-time maintenance of a solar PV system; and stakeholder engagement support and full project management — from planning through to installation.
The Conergy education team also offers bespoke, ongoing learning events catered to enhance an existing educational timetable — including assembly presentations, site visits and workshops for students to help further learning around the environmental and economic benefits of renewable energy — as well as the design technology and scientific aspects of the system.
The often significant savings against current utility costs can also be reinvested into the wellbeing of students – funding additional equipment and access to additional resources.
All educational facilities also have the option to engage in a power purchase agreement (PPA), which means that no costs for the system itself or ongoing maintenance are incurred.
The official launch comes as work gets underway on an installation at an Academy in West Bromwich, a 60kWp rooftop solar system.
The installation of the system began on December 7 and is expected to take just one week.
“A number of people within the education sector have contacted us, but were unsure whether solar was the right choice for them,” said Conergy UK’s Managing Director Paul Weaver who has spent 25 years of his career building schools.
“We have developed the ‘Conergy Solar on Schools Program’ in a bid to provide not only insight on the whys and wherefores, but also the potential wider return on investment including how the data collated can feed into the learning of students; simply put, our objective is to make things easier for many people who are interested in renewable technology and, specifically, Solar PV.”
The UK arm of the company, which has installed in excess of 277MW of PV systems as part of Conergy — with offices in 15 countries around the world.