Rushcliffe Solar started in July 2010 to encourage householders to fit Photovoltaic roofs! It's a partnership project of Rushcliffe BC, West Bridgford Transition, University of Nottingham, and Energy Saving Trust. We remained within Rushcliffe for the first 2 months, but now offer this to all boroughs of Nottingham. Please check out the website as it progresses, http://rushcliffesolar.blogspot.com/ . Let's make Nottingham into a 'swarm' of home power generators, collectively equal to a powerstation!
For the month of July, August and Sept, we had two senior architectural students (supervised by David Nicholson-Cole (of Nottm Uni and the Transition WB group) doing mapping surveys of West Bridgford, building a database, estimating the potential for home generation, and giving free advice to householders of the costs and payback. Please make use of this! (It's primarily by email). We also have had open air 'Solar Surgeries' on Central avenue on several Saturdays during the summer months. We now continue to provide an appraisal and estimation service for all of Nottingham.
Email rushcliffesolar@gmail.com advising us of your Postal Code and Housenumber, and any other relevant details such as trees, slope, boundary conditions, shared ownership. We will rapidly provide a report with a pretty accurate estimate of the possibilities - the geometry, likely cost, payback in years and percent - so you know what to talk about and what to expect when you talk to real installers. If your house has changed since Googlemaps photos were taken, please inform us. If the house doesn't have a number, please describe it, eg, 'the converted boathouse next to the pub'. Send a clipping from Googlemaps if the building is hard to identify.
Rushcliffe Solar is a non-commercial small research unit, formed in 2010, with a main campaign period of July-Sept 2010, followed by a year of continued support for residents of Rushcliffe and beyond . The target end date is July 1 2011, and we hope to continue beyond that if there is still demand.
Rushcliffe Solar is a team formed by:
- Rushcliffe Borough Council, Environmental Sustainability Unit (RBC), with start up funding.
- Energy Saving Trust (EST), providing a major technical and moral stimulus for the project.
- University of Nottingham Department of Architecture and Built Environment (UoN), providing staff and students and expertise and workspace.
- West Bridgford Transition Group (and Greening Campaign) with whom the idea originated, providing some voluntary service such as delivering leaflets.
- Belle and Jerome continental café bistro, permitting us to use them for WiFi and electricity and meetings on Saturdays.
- The Health Store, Central Avenue, WB, providing us with pavement space for outdoor surgeries on Saturdays.
Email is Rushcliffesolar@gmail.com
We prefer to work by email because are a team sharing all data and email contains a record of the reports, although we can phone if needed.
