Riverside Vineyard Fellowship
Riverside Vineyard Fellowship reduces energy costs by nearly £9,000 a year with solar panels
Payback in 6 years and community grant funding of £40k achieved with SaveMoneyCutCarbon expertise
Case study
The SaveMoneyCutCarbon renewables team designed and fitted a 167 solar PV panel solution for the building, shared by the Riverside Vineyard Fellowship church and conferencing centre.
We also supported Riverside Vineyard Fellowship to secure a £40k Community Energy Fund grant, which facilitated the project, leading to reduction in energy costs by nearly £9,000 a year.
The project saved over 13 tonnes of CO2 per year and has a payback of 6 years.
The Client
Riverside Vineyard Centre (RVC) in Feltham, Middlesex is a Christian church, a fellowship of people from diverse backgrounds, and part of a growing movement of churches across 6 continents. Riverside Vineyard Conferencing Centre is also based on site and has 4 versatile meeting rooms of varying sizes. The largest break-out or meeting room can accommodate up to 150 conference delegates in a theatre-style layout.
The Brief
The church and conferencing centre consume 97,890 kWh of electricity annually, and RVC is committed to developing ways to reduce its environmental footprint and reduce impacts of climate change. In 2021, it established a Green Team to research and develop more sustainable ways to operate.
SaveMoneyCutCarbon was contacted by Green Team leader Andrew Gill, who had worked with the company in another capacity. The team advised SaveMoneyCutCarbon that it was committed to reducing its climate impact, with an aim for self-sufficiency as far as possible, and to reducing energy costs.
The church organisers and trustees explored potential solutions for energy savings and carbon reductions with SaveMoneyCutCarbon through extensive discussions and planning meetings.
A crucial phase of the development process was the need to secure funding and the SaveMoneyCutCarbon team worked closely with the church to help support the funding application for a £40k Community Energy Fund grant from Hounslow council.
The Solution
Following a competitive tender process, the Riverside Vineyard invested over £110,000 in a rooftop solar panel installation.
SaveMoneyCutCarbon first carried out a desktop feasibility analysis, followed by detailed site surveys, before fully managing the installation of 167 panels on a roof-mounted system. The installation is optimised for greatest yield and maximum generation together with full monitoring, as opposed to a standard string system.
The system is designed to maximise self-consumption of energy generated and so significantly reduce energy bills, with the facility to export electricity at advantageous rates to the National Grid through the local energy supplier. During high summer, the solar array will provide 100% of the energy needs of the church building.
All installed products and services are Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) approved. The monocrystalline photovoltaic modules offer the highest efficiency cells and lower degradation rates, constructed from a single piece of silicon, making it easier for electricity to flow through. They have a pyramid cell pattern which offers a larger surface area, enabling the panels to collect a greater amount of energy from the sun’s rays.
The system also benefits from Solar Edge inverters with optimisers behind each panel. All inverters are ready to be connected to batteries in the future in order to maximise export and self-consumption as needed during the night.
Over the next 25 years, it’s estimated that the Riverside Vineyard will make £699,913 in cost savings with CO2 reductions of 328,000 Kg, the equivalent of 814,165 miles in a petrol-fuel car.
(Based on utility rate of 15.7p).
This project was completed in January 2024.
Annual cost saving £8,893.32
Annual carbon saving 13.12 metric tonnes