HUNDREDS of thousands of pounds have been saved on fuel bills for residents in social housing by the installation of solar panels, according to the Council.
Warrington Borough Council, working in partnership with Golden Gates Housing Trust, has completed its last round of installation of solar photovoltaic panels on 1,515 social homes, to take the total to 3,001 with the panels across Warrington.
Lymm residents Alan and Glynis Smith had panels put on their roof last summer.
Their first quarterly bill after the solar panels had been installed showed a reduction of a third compared to the bill for the same period the previous year.
Mrs Smith said: “We agreed to have the solar panels put on our roof because we thought anything that can help reduce bills is worth having.
“But I have to say we were amazed when we found out how much we had saved after they had been installed. It’s great how much they are saving us!”
Funding for the project has come from the council’s invest to save capital programme and is self-financing from income through the feed in tariff.
Councillor Russ Bowden, executive board member for corporate resources and assignments, said: “Many residents are struggling with the cost of living including paying their energy bills.
“This project has had a significant social benefit by taking 488 residents out of fuel poverty and helping 984 to switch energy providers saving local residents over £435,000.
“Innovative projects like this are making a huge difference to residents and at no overall cost to the council since they are self-financing from the feed in tariffs.
“Unfortunately it is disappointing that we can’t expand this to other Warrington residents because the government has substantially reduced the funding from feed in tariffs for new solar installations so it no longer works financially.”
