Cabinet's bright idea

lacked solar flair! 

At the beginning of the month, we expressed concern at the rush by Boston Borough Council’s cabinet of curiosities to spend a fortune on installing solar energy panels on the roof of the Geoff Moulder Leisure Complex.

Our worry was that because of the tightness of the timetable, and despite a recommendation that the decision should be endorsed by the full council, reports of the meeting quoted council leader Peter Bedford as saying that “the mayor has agreed that such a decision should be treated as urgent” which we were told meant that the matter would not go before the full council after all.
The urgency was because of the need to benefit from a guaranteed rate of 32.9p for every kilowatt hour generated. But applications had to be in by December 12th to qualify for the payment – which would then be guaranteed until 31st March 2012 and protected for 25 years linked to the rate of inflation. Any later with the applications, and the payment would drop by about half.
Glittering figures were bandied about, with profits on a best case scenario of £3,914,068 with a payback time for the cost of less than eight years; a “likely case” where profits would be £1,752,624 and even in the worst case, £1,293,362.
But now, it seems tonight’s meeting of the full council will have its voice heard after all.
The indecent haste to rush things through by 12th December – which was the date for applications which guaranteed the higher rate of return – just one small point was overlooked … the time it would take to process the applications – which is between 45 and 60 days.
Obviously this means that the council will miss the deadline, and makes us wonder whether anything else might have been overlooked as well.
The 32.9p payment that the cabinet had hoped for will now fall to 15.2p - although the higher rate will still be paid until the end of March, and the link to inflation will be maintained.
A slightly different calculation is used in the report to this evening’s meeting from the one originally given to the cabinet.
It compares “export” profits and uses them to calculate a payback period.
So, with a 50% export and 50% usage, payback would take 14.45 years with profits of £90,943; 20% export would take 9.81 years and yield £192,902, and using all the power without any exports would take pay back 8.08 years with profits of £260,875.
As well as the solar panels, which will cost £105,167, there is another proposal – to spend £22,132 of capital on energy efficient lighting at the Moulder complex.
It is estimated that this proposal will generate average annual savings of £4,047 – about the cost of a year’s muzak at the centre – plus annual maintenance savings which are to be “clarified” – which is always a worrying word.
The report’s conclusion is that: “Based on a set of cautious assumptions, it is believed that investment in solar PV would still represent a worthwhile investment and also demonstrate community leadership on the environment.”
Given the way that things have gone so far, we hope that tonight’s meeting will look long and hard at the proposals - and ensure that there are no potentially nasty surprises lurking in the wings.

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