The Mayor confirmed his intention to make solar photovoltaics (PV) one of the priorities for schools in the new phase of his public sector energy retrofit programme, RE:FIT. This information was received in a formal response (1) to Jenny Jones’ unanimous London Assembly motion calling for more Mayoral support for schools. Earlier, it had emerged that of the 200 London schools that have been retrofitted (or in the pipeline) through the Mayor’s RE:FIT programme, not a single school had or was planning to fit solar PV (2).
In March 2015, Jenny published a London borough breakdown table showing that only one in fifteen London schools was benefitting from solar PV and the rest were missing out on the potential income of £3,400 per year from generating their own electricity and the education benefits from pupils experiencing a working example of a renewable technology (3).
Jenny Jones AM said:
“After the Mayor’s dismal record of installing solar PV in schools, it’s a relief that he has made a commitment to make it one of his priorities.”
“However, it’s still unclear what this means in practice. Is the Mayor putting in place new resources, or does he expect it to be delivered from existing energy saving retrofit programmes, which are also desperately needed” (4).
Jenny previously urged the Mayor to set up a solar PV delivery Unit to:
· take a lead role in promoting, co-ordinating the deployment of mid-sized solar arrays on London schools
· develop and keep updated a London solar schools best practice “user friendly” guide for London Councils and Local Education Authorities, public and independent schools to help them get off the ground. This would cover procurement, legal, planning guidance, draft Terms of Reference, a cost/benefit assessment of the range of available funds and their viability with a basic model for calculating energy output, Feed in Tariff and financial indicators. (5)
Editors Notes
(2)/sites/default/files/Solar%20PV%20Delivery%20Unit%20proposal.PDF
(3) /mayor-assembly/london-assembly/2015/03/majority-of-london-schools-are-missing-out-on-solar-energy
Borough data was published on 10th March 2015.
(4) Answer to written question submitted at Mayors Question Time
Solar PV delivery - any new resources
Question No: 2015/1548
Jenny Jones
With reference to your letter to me regarding my proposal to set up a Solar PV Delivery Unit (dated 25 March 2015) you stated that you 'consider RE:NEW and RE:FIT adequate GLA delivery mechanisms for Solar PV at this present time'. Have you allocated any new dedicated staff resources or funding within these programmes in 2015/16 to deliver solar PV?
Written response from the Mayor
Both RE:FIT and RE:NEW already have dedicated delivery units that support installation of a range of energy measures, including solar PV. The RE:NEW Support Team, launched last summer, contains a resource dedicated to solar and the new RE:NEW framework of suppliers to be launched later this year will have a specific solar contract. Funding for a new phase of RE:FIT is earmarked in my 2015/16 budget. One of the priorities of this new phase will be to support public sector organisations, including schools, to install solar PV.
(5)/sites/default/files/Solar%20PV%20Delivery%20Unit%20proposal_0.PDF