• Swindon & Wiltshire News
• Tuesday June 28 2022
• Author Name: Peter Davison

Bottle Yard’s community-owned rooftop solar scheme believed to be UK’s biggest

A project believed to be the UK’s largest community-owned rooftop solar scheme will soon be powering the production of TV shows and film at Bristol’s Bottle Yard Studios.

The Bottle Yard Studios in Whitchurch has become so popular with filmmakers that it will shortly open a second state-of-the-art facility – named TBY2 – half a mile from the main site.

Its facilities will be powered by a massive 1MWp solar array made up of over 2000 solar panels.

The original plan was to install a 283kWp solar array on the building, which is council-owned, but thanks to funding from Bristol Energy Cooperative (BEC) the final scheme is over three times larger than the original.

The new solar array is being funded from the Co-op’s latest share offer, which has already attracted over £1 million from 366 investors.

BEC’s community ownership model provides a return to their investor members whilst surplus revenues go back to the community through grants and investment into more local energy projects.

Local contractor Solar South West is installing the array.

BEC’s involvement at TBY2 has reduced project costs for Bristol City Council whilst also helping the city deliver on its climate targets.

Will Houghton from BEC, who has been involved in the project development at Bottle Yard, said: “Solar arrays are often designed to cover just a small part of a roof, to reduce costs.

“But we’re in a climate crisis, and in order to meet Bristol’s climate goals we‘re aiming much higher than that.

“The Bottle Yard Studios is a massive site, with loads of opportunity for energy generation and CO2 reduction. So for this project we were determined to make full use of the available roof space.”

The Bottle Yard Studios rooftop will become BEC’s 18th renewable energy project in the region.

BEC’s solar energy generation is equivalent to 33 per cent of solar electricity generation in Bristol, making it a significant player in the region.

With the city’s commitments to net zero, Will says large rooftops should be seen as a major asset.

A 2019 report from the Centre for Sustainable Energy showed that Bristol rooftops have the potential for 500 MW of financially viable solar PV, but only six per cent had been installed so far.

Bristol Energy Cooperative’s current share offer closes at the end of June.