St Helier’s Parish Assembly agrees to host JEC solar farm

St Helier’s Parish Assembly supported a proposal last night from the Constable and Procureurs du Bien Public to install a solar farm on the roof of its Recycling Centre in La Grande Route de St Jean.

In 2019, the Parish Assembly declared a climate change emergency and set out its aim to be carbon neutral by 2025-2030. Since then the Parish has commenced an ambitious change programme, including a range of measures to both reduce its carbon footprint and offset carbon emissions. This includes beginning a phased move away from petrol and diesel vehicles to an electric fleet, conversion of heating and cooking facilities from fossil fuels to electric, and directly supporting environmental projects such as the community smallholding GROW Project in the north of the Parish.

This new proposal is the latest initiative aimed at helping offset the Parish’s carbon footprint. Working with Jersey Electricity, the Parish presented proposals to the Parish Assembly to install the solar farm on the roof of its Recycling Centre. The new solar farm will generate 86 kWp, which is equivalent to supplying electricity to approximately 11 average homes. The Parish Assembly, chaired by the Constable and attended by many of the Parish’s newly-elected Deputies, supported the proposal unanimously.

The proposal, agreed by the Assembly, rents the roof space of the Recycling Centre to the JEC, allowing installation of the solar farm which will be connected to the Jersey Electricity grid; there will be 222 solar panels fitted to the roof which is 832 sq.m.

Note to editors: kWp is the peak power of a PV system or panel. Solar panel systems are given a rating in kilowatts peak (kWp) which is the rate at which they generate energy at peak performance, such as on a sunny day in the afternoon.

For any further information, please contact our Head of Infrastructure, Silvio Alves, on 811849 or [email protected].