Aith school gets solar panels

AN ARRAY of solar panels is to be installed on the roof of Aith Junior High School as an energy-saving measure.

The £13,000 project will see a 12kW solar PV array fitted while other roof works are being carried out – allowing them to be installed using scaffolding that has already been erected.

Council officials estimate the project will pay for itself within seven years and during the units’ proposed 20-year lifespan will save the local authority £34,000 from its energy bill.

The solar panels will generate 8,000kWh (kilowatt hours) of electricity a year – currently around a tenth of the school’s electricity consumption, though that proportion will rise once other energy-saving measures have been installed.

A report to Shetland Islands Council on Wednesday stated that it is hoped the local authority can “act as a demonstrator for the viability of solar panels on commercial buildings locally and thus encourage other local home and business owners to follow our example and make their own savings”.

The solar panels were approved under delegated authority by infrastructure director Maggie Sandison, and council leader Cecil Smith told the meeting it was “a good scheme taking opportunity of scaffolding already there”.