Tetangga London Ini Menunjukkan kepada UK Cara Membawa Tenaga Suria ke Rumah-Rumah Berpendapatan Rendah

(SeaPRwire) –   Apabila Majlis Hackney menetapkan matlamat mendekarbonkan daerah London pada tahun 2019, bahagian pentingnya melibatkan melihat cara untuk menjadikan bangunan milik majlis—yang dikenali sebagai perumahan majlis—lebih cekap tenaga. 

Tetapi untuk daerah itu, dan di seluruh Britain, memasang microgrid berkuasa suria yang boleh membantu meningkatkan kecekapan tenaga dan mengurangkan kos adalah tugas yang lebih mudah dibicarakan daripada dilaksanakan.

Walaupun microgrid beroperasi dalam persekitaran komersial dan perindustrian, peraturan itu berarti penyewa yang tinggal di apartmen dibatasi dalam keupayaannya untuk menukar pembekal tenaga. Ini berarti bahawa tenaga suria hanya boleh digunakan untuk ruang komunal—dan sebarang diskaun hanya akan memberi faedah kepada pemilik bangunan. 

Reg Platt, CEO of Emergent Energy, syarikat perkhidmatan tenaga, telah menghabiskan dekad bekerja dalam dasar dan peraturan tenaga dan memahami masalah itu dengan baik. “Motivasi saya selalu berkisar tentang bagaimana anda menerapkan teknologi ini secepat mungkin,” katanya. “Kita perlu mencipta model pembiayaan solar PV dan teknologi tenaga dalam rumah lain yang tidak bergantung pada sokongan kerajaan apa-apa.” 

Dia berdiri Emergent pada tahun 2016 sebagai cara untuk menghubungkan apartmen dan projek perumahan berpendapatan rendah kepada faedah suria—dan mempersembahkan perlawanan untuk perubahan peraturan yang akan membolehkan syarikatnya membekalkan elektrik secara langsung kepada pelanggan daripada panel suria yang dipasang secara tempatan—membenarkan mereka memanfaatkan ganjaran tenaga yang lebih murah dan lebih bersih. 

Pada akhir 2024, Emergent signed a contract with the Hackney Council to launch a first-of-its-kind pilot program for the U.K. that is providing solar to 10% of the estate’s residents. It hopes to reach as many as 60% as it continues outreach to sign up new tenants. Residents enrolled in the program have already saved 15% on their energy bills, says Sarah Young, the borough’s cabinet member for climate change, environment, and transport. 

It’s a big move in the U.K., where energy costs remain about a third higher than before Russia’s Ukraine invasion triggered an energy crisis in Europe.

Microgrids allow consumers to receive energy directly, lowering the cost. “A microgrid is like a mini version of the electricity networks that we have across a nation or a state,” says Ronan Bolton, professor of sustainable energy at the University of Edinburgh. “Rather than having the supplier contracting directly with the producer and the consumer, the producer and the consumer are more directly connected. That creates more economic value because they’re offsetting the retail cost of purchasing electricity.”

The idea of community-led clean energy is becoming increasingly appealing. In 2024, there were 614 community energy organizations operating in the U.K., according to Community Energy England—up 24% since 2021. In Bristol, for example, a grassroot, resident-led group in a low-income neighborhood secured £4m in 2022 to build a wind turbine. The project, which also launched without government funding, was spurred on in part by residents’ frustration with rising energy prices. 

The Hackney project, meanwhile, is owned by the council, which means that it doesn’t risk being at the mercy of electricity rates set by private companies. “All the benefit goes to the residents,” says Young, who notes that the council expects to fully recover their £2 million ($2.6 million) investment. She hopes that as the project expands, they might be able to repurpose leftover energy into other projects that help the borough go green, like battery storage or electric vehicle charging.   

The Hackney Council solar project stretches across 27 buildings that contain 750 apartments. But there’s potential to expand across four and a half million social housing properties in the U.K., along with the millions of other residential apartments, Platt says. 

In January, Edward Miliband, Britain’s Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, unveiled the Warm Homes Plan, a £15 billion ($20 billion) investment to cut energy bills and emissions by upgrading millions of homes with insulation, heat pumps, and solar panels. The program was unveiled at the site of the Hackney project. The government also announced £1 billion ($1.3 billion) in funding last month to invest in community clean energy projects on buildings like libraries and recreational centers.

Platt hopes that this funding can be used to help the project expand. “We think that what we’re doing is directly aligned with what the government wants to achieve,” he says. “And we provide them a means to scale up solar extremely fast, supporting social housing, low income residents with bill savings at the same time as bringing assets, and aspects of the energy industry into national and municipal ownership.”

Moreover, widespread implementation would mean cheaper, cleaner energy for everyone—not just those that can afford it. “We strongly believe in a just transition to net zero,” says Young. “So for us, it’s absolutely essential that it’s not just those who are able to pay for the energy transition who benefit from it.”

Artikel ini disampaikan oleh DBT, penyokong Penghargaan Bumi TIME, yang akan diadakan di London pada 26 Mac.