Shoreham Harbour’s solar panels offer a confident vision for the future
Hove MP Mike Weatherley was so impressed when he switched on the new solar panels at Shoreham Harbour that he offered to put his money where his mouth is. Mr Weatherley said that he would join more than 200 others by investing in the business behind the scheme, the Brighton Energy Co-op. The minimum stake is £300. Tax breaks start with a £500 investment. The legal maximum of £20,000 is about to rise to £100,000 – more than the average MP can afford.
Mr Weatherley, a Conservative, will be joining the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, Caroline Lucas, as a member of the energy co-op. Both are advocates of renewable energy sources and both oppose nuclear power. Other members of the energy co-op include a banker in London, a vicar from Northern Ireland and a smattering of industry professionals, as well as an impressive number of environmentally friendly Brightonians.
The 880 panels on the roof of Shed 10 at the port cost about £250,000 to buy and install. They were fitted by the Lewes company Southern Solar. The port already has more than 360 solar panels on the roof of Hove Enterprise Centre. And it plans to put more up on the roof of Shed 3a as soon as the energy co-op finishes fundraising for the latest phase of what looks likely to become a harbour-wide project.
“For us there’s no capital spend but we get cheaper electricity. Everyone benefits from it. A lot of people want to be green but this works financially”
The port’s decision to make use of its extensive roof space is part of a long history of power and energy on the Shoreham waterfront. Peter Davies, the port’s development director, said: “We had a gasworks here in the 1800s. We’ve had a connection with energy for well over a century. We’re doing a lot on green energy and we’re exploring all technologies.”
For years the two chimneys of Shoreham’s coal-fired power station were a local landmark. Now the port is home to a smaller gas-fired power station. And planning permission was recently granted for a biofuel power plant. Wind turbines are also being considered on the southern side of the lock. Mr Davies said: “It’s a good location for wind turbines.” At 35m – to the tip – they would be about the same height as the nearby phone masts and lighting tower. The power station chimney is three times as high.
Solar power, though, is already providing savings of thousands of pounds a year. Mr Davies said: “Our motivation is a combination of things. Because we are a big real estate, there’s scale in what we can do and it feels as though we are making a big difference. We buy electricity from the co-op at a reduced rate and that goes on for 20 years. For us there’s no capital spend but we get cheaper electricity. Everyone benefits from it. A lot of people want to be green but this works financially.”
It’s just as well that the port’s making savings from solar power, given the damage caused by months of storms. Mr Davies said that the port may speed up its programme of replacing the old and patched up groynes that form a key part of the harbour’s sea defences. At about £125,000 a groyne, they’re not cheap. He said: “We replaced two groynes last year and I think we can safely say they saved Carats café. We’re putting in two more now. We look after 14 in total.
“We have had a lot of damage this winter. I don’t know how much we’ll spend. We’ve had one roof leaking badly, affecting one of our tenants. Our largest shed, Shed 1, has had quite large sections of the roof come away. We’re having to reassess whether we patch up or replace it – and we’ve had to introduce extra safety measures.”
All this comes as a ten-week consultation starts on the Draft Joint Area Action Plan produced jointly by the port, Brighton and Hove City Council, Adur District Council and West Sussex County Council. The original housing target for the harbour of 10,000 homes is now a more realistic 2,000. This reflects the way the port has won new business and bucked recent economic trends.
