Church goes green (From Borehamwood Times)

Borehamwood church goes green with solar panels

9:32am Tuesday 28th February 2012 in News By Natalie O'Neill

A church in Borehamwood hopes to shrink its carbon footprint after solar panels were fitted to its roof yesterday.

St Paul’s Lutheran Church in St Paul’s Close is the first church to use the solar photovoltaic system in Borehamwood, which could help cut its annual electricity bill by one third.

Revd David Jackson, said: “As Christians, it’s a good idea that we help to preserve the environment, finding an alternative green energy source like solar panels. And these days it’s becoming more readily accessible to do.

“It’s about looking after the environment and preserving creation for the future.”

The panels will use energy from the sun to generate electricity for the church, which is used every week for services as well as dance, pilates and choir groups.

Tim Millward, who advices St Paul’s on financial matters, said: “I think it’s great having solar panels for the church because most of the activities are going on during the day when we will be getting the electricity for free as it’s being generated from the panels.”

Power can be used straight away and any excess can be linked back into the power grid to be used later, or sold to the national grid or energy companies, using Feed-in Tariffs (FITs).