St Barnabas Church

The project will install solar panels and batteries at St Barnabas Church on Mill Road in Cambridge. The site includes a large church building constructed in 1870 and redeveloped most recently in 2014, and the St Barnabas Centre, a former school hall dating from 1890. The church is developing a net zero strategy, informed by a baseline environmental, social and governance report and energy audit conducted in 2023. The funding we seek from Thalia WB Community Fund is for batteries for solar panels as part of our larger project.
The 34 panel 13.77kW photovoltaic system planned would generate an average of 11,000 – 12,000 kWh of electricity per annum. This would represent up to half of the annual usage of the church (around 24,000 kWh, of which around 14,000 kWh is daytime usage). Based on residential solar panels, this is likely to reduce CO2 emissions compared with the fossil fuel equivalent by 12 -20 times (depending on gas or coal generation). This may represent a saving of around 3.5 tonnes of CO2 for Cambridgeshire annually.

Both buildings are used by church and community groups on a regular basis, such as a community choir, drama group, babies and toddlers’ group, and soft play on Sundays. There are also occasional book and historical fairs, fashion shows, music events, art &
craft exhibitions. Recent one off bookings include; PBFA Book Fair, Lookout Illustrations Fair, Citizens Advice Bureau, Cambridge Community Arts, Mill Road Fringe, Cambridge 105 Radio, and First Aid training.

As well as supporting St Barnabas’s commitment to net zero carbon, this project would support energy efficiency. This would improve comfort for all users of our facilities, and free up additional resources to invest into St Barnabas’s ongoing ministry to young children and their carers. The reduced running costs could be enjoyed even beyond 2050, given the performance warranty of the solar panels of 25 years.