Carbon Reduction Community Fund Case Study
London-based charity Acme supported by the Tower Hamlets Carbon Reduction Community Fund to help deliver Solar Panel project
Acme has been supporting artists in need for over 50 years. They work collaboratively to deliver affordable and secure artist studios, work/live space, creative residencies and awards which support artists at all stages of their careers.
They wanted to install solar panels on the roof of their building on Copperfield Road so that they could start generating some of their own electricity and reduce their reliance on the grid and pass on the cost benefit of this to their artists.
![A Solar PV invertor](/images_and_video/Sustainability/IMG-0173a.png)
There was a significant cost to carrying out this project. So they applied for a grant from Tower Hamlets Carbon Reduction Community Grants Fund.
The Programme provides grants of up £30,000 to help VCS sector organisations improve their energy efficiency and reduce their carbon emissions.![Solar PV panels on the roof of Acme’s building](/images_and_video/Sustainability/IMG-0171.JPEG)
Acme completed the simple application form and the application was assessed by a Grants Panel who approved the application to provide a grant of £29,985 for the cost of the solar panels.
Following the award of the grant Acme proceeded with the project and the solar panels were installed. Acme are happy with the completed project which saw 112 panels installed which will now generate electricity for their office and their artists, reducing their demand for electricity from the grid and cutting their energy costs.
It is projected that the project will reduce the electricity demand from the grid of the building by 9,000 kWh a year which is a carbon emission reduction of 1.9tCO2.![Solar PV panels on the roof of Acme’s building](/images_and_video/Sustainability/IMG-0168.JPEG)
Liam Creech, Head of Property Management at Acme said of the project:
“We have considered the possibility of Solar Panels for a long time. There has always been a strong environmental and sustainability case to install a Solar system, but the initial investment required has always prevented us from moving forward. The Carbon Reduction Community Grants programme has provided the support and space we needed to plan and install a large-scale plant of 112 Solar Panels. We would not have been able to consider a project at this scale without the programme. The process has changed the way we think about the potential of Solar and we are now planning further installations across other buildings in the future.”