It was 4.oopm on Tuesday 5th July 2011 that we turned 'it' on. What? you may ask. No not just What - Kilowatt in fact!

For 1st Abbots Langley (3rd North Watford) now produce our own electricity with rooftop Solar Energy. We managed to obtain a gernerous 50% grant from the National Lottery and also help from the Co-Op Bank and this together with fund-raising, eneabled us to pay for its installation.

By sundown on the 5th July we had already produced 4Kwh and within 3 weeks we had 308.4Kwh to our credit. The system consists of 21 Solar Photovoltaic Panels with an estimated 3186 KWh annual generation.

Applying for a grant from the National Lottery is no easy matter and any other group doing so would need to have freehold of its property or a long leasehold. It has taken us 9months of effort to achieve, but we think it well worthwhile. The system is guaranteed for 25years and we are paid quarterly 43p per Kwh for all the power we produce whether we use it or not.

We would like to thank the 2nd Billericay Scout Group who turned on their system in the Autumn of last year, for helping us in the intial stage of our project.

Written by Bryan S Sharpe, Chairman