New Charter in pioneering solar deal with Taiwanese
HOUSING association New Charter has agreed an innovative multi-million pound deal with a Taiwanese company which will cut its tenants’ electricity bills by around £40m.
The £100m revenue group based in Aston-under-Lyne says its £18m deal with solar group GES, will benefit 4,500 homes in Tameside.
The contract is believed to be the first solar licensed deal of its type and the biggest solar project for a housing association in the UK. It will help save nearly 133,500 tonnes of carbon and residents £40m over the next 25 years.
Ian Munro, chief executive of New Charter Group, said: “This initiative is helping to tackle fuel poverty for our tenants who have suffered due to rising energy costs. Tenants living in homes with the solar panels will see their bills drop by between £200 and £400 a year.”
Dr Quincy Lin, GES chairman, added: “This solar panel project is the first we have done in the UK and is an extremely significant deal for GES. The deal basically involves using roof space for solar panels under a licence agreement with New Charter. This allows New Charter to retain control over the roof and their tenants benefit from reduced bills through the energy produced by the panels on their homes.”
Under the deal GES has a licence with New Charter Housing Trust Group to use the roofs of the 4,500 homes. GES is investing around £18m to produce and installs the PV solar systems. The investor will operate the systems for 20 years and gets Feed-In Tariff revenues (government guaranteed). New Charter’s tenants get free electricity (savings of between £200 and £400 a year depending on usage and size of system).
GES (General Energy Solutions) is Taiwan based and produces solar panels and other green initiatives. It is a subsidiary of NSP (Neo Solar Power), the largest merchant solar cell manufacturer in the world. GES has produced panels for solar farms across the globe, including Europe, Japan, Argentina, Peru, Taiwan and the US.
