Feasibility of renewable energy options - TCV

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Stave Hill Ecological Park was created in the centre of the former Surrey Commercial Dock in the late 1980s. In 1991, Bacon’s College opened as a City Technical College and subsequently reopened as a new secondary academy school in 2018. Their site is adjacent to the park. In 2008/9, TCV moved into their compound within the park. The compound now comprises a shipping container office, ‘The Shed’ – a new timber construction classroom and the Tool Shed which houses TCV’s tools and the control units for the borehole and current wind turbine.

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Renewable energy generation has been part of Stave Hill since 1993 when a wind turbine was installed to power the borehole pump which supplies water to the ponds and lake in the park. The first wind turbine installed was a 10kW Bergey. This was replaced in 2003, with the support of a Clear Skies grant, by the current turbine. This 5kW Fortis Montana was installed on the existing tower. Due to the absence of a maintenance plan and resources, the wind turbine ceased to operate c.2012.

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TCV approached Lantern to request help with reinstating onsite renewable energy generation for the Stave Hill Ecological Park. Lantern undertook a review of current and future site energy demand and supply, completed a feasibility study for replacing the wind turbine in the same location as the existing turbine and for installing solar PV on the shipping container office.

Several challenges present at Stave Hill required creative solutions to ensure any installation of onsite energy generation could go ahead and then be successfully operated. The land use planning for Stave Hill is complicated by its ownership and operational structure so Lantern undertook careful stakeholder engagement amongst interested parties to ensure the correct planning process could be followed and appropriate billing and funding set up. A new maintenance regime had to be agreed to ensure successful long-term operation amongst interested parties and this needed to include security of the installed equipment.

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Lantern engaged potential suppliers of wind and solar PV following completion of the feasibility work and TCV is busy progressing the procurement stage of the project.