Polish Social & Cultural Centre

Polish social and cultural centre

A popular community centre for the Polish community in West London now boast green credentials after the installation of a large Solar PV array aimed to lower their carbon  footprint.

POSK was founded to be a social hub for the large polish community of London as a “Home away from Home” for expatriates and those of polish heritage to keep in contact with Poland and others in the community and also keep traditions alive in another country.

POSK occupy a large space in West London and were mindful of mounting energy cost.  In order to keep the centre running as usual without increasing charges to members, the board began to look at reducing overheads. Naturally the board looked at energy consumption as an ever growing bill for the centre to see how it could best be reduced.

Upon consultation with Carmichael Browns the board decided that Solar PV was the way to go for the centre. Carmichael Browns were commissioned to design install and certify a bespoke system best suited to the centre’s energy requirements.  96 Suntech Solar Modules were mounted across a split level roof 5 floors up. These panels were mounted via a K2 dome system enabling the maximum amount of Solar capture for the aspect and elevation of the building.

Carmichael Browns took POSK through the entire process and handled several stage of application for them including the G59 application process which enables a Solar panel array to be linked to the national grid. With this secured a home or business can receive regular payments through the governments Feed In Tariff scheme, bringing about a much faster return on investment.

POSK are a registered charity and so can claim reduced rate of 5% VAT on their FIT Payments reserved for charitable installations, it has been a great pleasure for Carmichael Browns to work closely with POSK and to assist a charity in reducing their bills  and continuing to further their work amongst a local community.

POSK are delighted with their installation and even happier to see their first year returns which include 9.8% return on investment in year one which will grow with inflation, in addition to this a first year financial benefit of over £4,500. Over the next 25 years POSK will see a total financial benefit in excess of £260,000 thanks to reductions in energy bills and the regular payments through the governments Feed In Tariff.