Solar PV Programme

Solar PV Programme – Phase 1 Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme

In 2019 Hampshire County Council (HCC) declared a Climate Emergency and a commitment to mitigate climate change through reducing carbon emissions. One of the initiatives undertaken was a bid to Central Government for decarbonisation funding. This resulted in HCC receiving government funding in 2021 for the first phase of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS), which aimed to reduce carbon emissions in public sector buildings.

The funding enabled HCC to undertake a vast programme to install Solar Photo Voltaic (PV) across 258 sites on both corporate buildings and school sites. Due to the size of the programme, sites were divided into 4 Lots, and following a tender process a different contractor appointed for each Lot.

Site locations were identified based on those currently without Solar PV, as well as desktop and site surveys to establish the viability of installing them. Each contractor carried out designs, costed each site, arranged for structural surveys and contacted the District Network Operator (DNO), where applicable. All required approval from HCC prior to programming the installation at each site.

An extensive multi-disciplinary team from HCC worked on this tight programme of work to support the contractors by approving designs and costs; offering liaison with sites; and engaging with specialist teams i.e. Hampshire Scientific Services for asbestos review, structural engineers and ecologists.

On completion of the programme, over 13,000 panels have been installed with an installed capacity of 5.969 Mwp, which will have a significant impact on reducing HCC’s carbon emissions.