Frome Medical Centre solar panels generate one billion watt hours

SOLAR panels on the roof of Frome Medical Centre recently reached a milestone, having generated over one gigawatt hour (GWh) of power since they were installed in 2015.  

In May of that year, the Frome Renewable Energy Co-op (FRECo) raised £280,000 through community shares in just four days, as part of a community benefit project. This investment was used to install a 150-kilowatt peak of solar on the roof of Frome Medical Centre, as well as part-funding the installation of solar on Frome Town Football Club’s community stand.

Jonathan Powell of FRECO said, “One gigawatt hour is a big number. It’s a unit of energy representing one billion watt hours and we are really excited this number has been reached less than ten years after the solar panels were installed. Sometimes these numbers can feel a little meaningless, but to put it into context this would be enough power for an electric car to drive around the world 150 times!”

Building manager at Frome Medical Centre, Elaine Morley, said, “Reaching one gigawatt hour of power feels like a significant moment in the life of our solar panels. Based on a typical medium sized home in the UK using 2700 kWH of electricity per year, according to Ofgem, this means the energy our panels have generated is enough to have powered 370 homes for one year.

“The solar panels are an important part of our infrastructure, helping us work towards our goals on sustainability and we’ll continue to monitor their output over future years with interest.”