The Parish of St Clement and Jersey Electricity (JE) have signed an agreement to decarbonise the Parish Hall by switching its heating system to an energy efficient air source heat pump, installing a solar PV (photovoltaic) array on its roof and installing public electric vehicle (EV) charging points in the public carpark.
The heating system is being funded by the Parish while the solar installation and EV chargers will be funded by JE. Work is due to start over the summer months completing in the autumn.
Roof and cavity insulation is being upgraded at the Parish Hall ready for the heating system, which will be installed by Isle Eco who explored various innovative low carbon options with the Parish. Air source heat pumps are up to 500% efficient and can be around 60% cheaper to run than oil or gas heating. This means that for every one unit of electricity to power the heat pump, up to five units of heat are produced from the system and fed to its radiators and into the building.
The 71kWp solar installation will export locally-generated electricity directly to the local grid for use in the community or to the EV chargers as they are used and will generate enough energy to power the equivalent of 10 fully-electric homes each year.
Two Evolve charging points will be installed in the free public car park, taking the number of charging points on the Island’s Evolve public charging network to 122 and adding to the other EV chargers available in the Parish at M&S St Clement.
Connétable of St Clement Marcus Troy said, “As a forward-thinking Parish, we’re proud to lead the way in innovation and sustainability while ensuring the Parish Hall’s operations deliver maximum value for our Parishioners. The Parish Hall’s heating system needed replacing and, combined with the rooftop solar array, the air source heat pump will reduce our energy usage and operating costs – something Parishioners were supportive of when we held a consultation on these plans at the end of 2024.”
Chris Ambler, Chief Executive of Jersey Electricity added, “St Clement has been an early adopter of several environmental and sustainability initiatives and we’re proud to partner on this transformation of the Parish Hall. Facilitating a fuel switch and installing a solar array on the roof directly benefits parishioners while the EV charger brings another charging option to the south-east coast, which is good news for our growing EV community.
“It has been great to work with St Clement Parish which is so committed to sustainability and is taking real action and we’d welcome the opportunity to work with other parishes on reducing their carbon footprints and running costs as well as helping to generate locally grown electricity to power our homes.”
JE and St Clement have partnered most recently to install the Island’s first 4MW community scale solar farm and through the Parish Earth Partnership in 2022, in which JE worked with the Parish to densely plant and maintain a small plot of land with native trees and shrubs to increase biodiversity and aid carbon sequestration over the long term.
Main picture shows Chris Ambler and Constable Troy.
