The Big Solar Co-op is jumpstarting community solar with a volunteer-led, ethical model that works anywhere in the UK. There are already more than 500 of us (and counting!) from all over the UK. Together, we own 6 large solar rooftops, and we’ve got a further 40 projects ready to roll out. All we need is your support.
Midcounties Co-op HQ
This is the first site of many that we are installing for the Midcounties Co-op in phase 1 of our partnership with them. The 150 panels will provide 55kWp and meets a whopping 98% of the electricity needed for their head office in Warwick.
Eden Court Medical Practice
This is a smaller sized array for the Big Solar Co-op at a dinky 30kWp but it is a hugely important community building in Birmingham providing medical services in a deprived ward. The solar installation will help in enabling Eden Court to take a big step towards decarbonising their building and the solar generation will help to power their on site EV charger too! With 89 solar panels meeting 50% of their energy needs and saving 6 tonnes of CO2 equivalent in the first year, this project shows how vital community sites can champion sustainability and set a standard for others.
Leominster Sunrise Co-operative
Leominster Sunrise Co-operative installed a 90kW solar photovoltaic array on a new build primary school in Leominster, Herefordshire in 2014. Its purpose is to generate as much solar electricity as possible for the school to use, to reduce their reliance on fossil fuel based electricity. It will also reduce the school’s energy bill by around £5000 a year.
Through a co-ops merger procedure approved by the members and Board of Leominster Sunrise Co-operative the Big Solar Co-op will take on the operations and maintenance of the solar array. This will free up members of the Leominster Sunrise Co-operative to work on new projects and they will all have the opportunity to join the Big Solar Co-op as Volunteer and/or Investor members. Welcome!
Midcounties Co-op
The Big Solar Co-op is delighted to be working in partnership with the Midcounties Co-operative on a rollout of PV arrays at 29 of its sites. This is the just the start and represents generation potential of 5 Gigawatt hours of low carbon electricity in the near future. The sites include offices and childcare settings as well as supermarkets.
It’s particularly good to be working with another co-op and maximising the benefits for their members and ours, while putting in place new solar that will reduce carbon emissions for decades to come.
The installations will start this year and continue into 2025 as we work our way around the Midlands.
Twiggs
William Twigg (Matlock) Ltd, more commonly known as Twiggs, is a family run engineers’ merchants, steel stockholder and steel fabricator established in Matlock, Derbyshire in 1905 by William Twigg. Four generations of the Twigg family have continued the business and are proud sponsors of Matlock Town Football Club.
Derbyshire Dales Community Energy (DDCE) has worked with Twiggs and the Big Solar Co-op to agree installation of a large energy producing array of solar panels on Twiggs roof.
The installation consists of 165 panels with a generating capacity of 60 kWp. That’s 15 times the power of a normal 4kW household solar system. The panels will generate around 46000 kWh per year. That is equivalent to meeting all the electricity needs of 10 or more houses.
Whiteborough
We’re working on a groundbreaking approach to groundmount solar. This will be a relatively small ground-mount system on the site of an opencast mine in Nottinghamshire which we will transform into the UK’s lowest-carbon solar farm, producing enough electricity to power all the homes in the nearby large village of Huthwaite on a sunny day.
Eco-Pak
Chatteris based firm Eco-Pak have had over 1500 solar panels installed on their packhouse roof by the Big Solar Co-op, a pioneering UK-wide not-for-profit co-operative. The panels will meet around 75% of the daytime electricity demand on site, saving them around £1 million over 30 years and cutting carbon emissions by around 100 tonnes in the first year alone.
The solar panels have been provided free of charge to Eco-Pak thanks to an innovative collaboration between Fenland Council’s business advice service, Fenland for Business, volunteers from Carbon Neutral Cambridge, community investors and the Big Solar Co-op.
“It was the perfect solution at the perfect time for us. We were worried about increasing energy costs, and I’d had a quote for solar of around £500K. As we’d just bought the building, we’d have needed a bank loan, which would have required a 25% deposit, which at the time we didn’t have.”
Richard Hall, Operations Director at EcoPak
Kerry Taste & Nutrition
Global food company Kerry Taste & Nutrition are looking to reduce carbon emissions by 55% by 2030, and manage volatile energy costs. From an initial contact in late 2020, The Big Solar Co-op and Kerry T&N together overcame the challenges of the pandemic, and issues with structural data and insurance requirements, to install a 294kW solar system on the roof of Kerry T&N’s Shropshire plant. The installation is projected to generate 250MWh of electricity annually, and save Kerry T&N almost £200,000 in energy costs over the next 20 years. This protects the company from energy market volatility and contributes to the future sustainability of the business and local jobs.
“Working with the Big Solar Co-op has been a smooth, straightforward process and we are looking forward to a long-term productive relationship with them.”
Kerry Baker, Plant Manager, Kerry Taste & Nutrition
