Hawkesley Community Centre launches Kings Norton's solar revolution
Taken from “Birmingham Sustainable Energy News”
Photograph reproduced from “Communities Life Magazine”
Staff and users at Hawkesley Community Centre are now doing their bit on climate change, having installed a solar hot water system at the centre in February. Hawkesley Community CentreThe system, which was manufactured by Grant UK, is expected to meet 50% or more of the Centre's hot water needs over the course of a year. This will save around 925 kilogrammes of carbon dioxide. The Centre's hot water costs are relatively high, so the cost savings should be substantial. The system includes a monitoring device that allows the user to see how much energy has been saved on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Jan Wixey, Community Development Worker at the Centre, told the 3 Estates Life Magazine, “the money saved through the solar panel will be put back into the Centre and benefit future users.” New World Solar Installations installed the system. They are a local company based in Chelmsley Wood, committed to tackling climate change and providing meaningful jobs and training to local people in the region's most disadvantaged communities.

Hawkesley Community Centre received advice from BSEP in choosing a system and installer and support from Birmingham City Council's Urban Design during the installation process. Funding for the project came from b:cen’s Real Time Community Change programme.