Chase Community Solar Limited (CCS) is a community initiative which in 2015 had solar PV panels installed on 314 local authority-owned homes in Cannock Chase district.
The scheme:
- Reduces carbon emissions
- Makes electricity available to households free of charge when the solar panels are generating
- Will distribute a proportion of its surplus for community benefit, when financial performance allows
- Brings control of electricity generation to a more local level
When the panels are producing electricity, residents of the houses are able to use it free of charge , with any surplus being exported to the grid. CCS, which is a community benefit society (a type of mutual), owns the panels and receives income in the form of the Feed in Tariff and from the sale of the electricity to the grid. Through the scheme, we have so far (as at Dec 2019) produced over 3.4 million kilowatt hours of electricity (enough to boil water for over 172 million cups of tea) and saved an estimated 1.8 million kg of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere.
CCS is grateful for the support and commitment of Cannock Chase District Council, who have made it possible to launch the scheme, believed currently to be the only one in the UK having community-owned solar panels on council-owned houses and run entirely by volunteers.
Note: Two systems have since been removed from roofs where tenants exercised their right to buy their homes and did not wish to retain the panels, leaving the Society with 312 systems (as at July 2020).