Kentish Town City Farm
February 2020
About
Kentish Town City Farm (KTCF) is a community charity that helps city people connect with animals, nature & the environment. Situated on a 4-acre site by the railway lines in north Kentish Town, it attracts over 29,000 visitors a year by providing an extensive educational programme to schools, therapeutic riding for people with special needs and farm-related activities to local children and families.
Funding & delivery
PUNL provided end-to-end project management support for this project. In early 2018 PUNL secured a feasibility grant of £9,700 from the GLA’s London Community Energy Fund and with the, farm management developed a project to install an 11kWp PV array on the stables by the entrance, with an expected annual output greater than 10MWh. Due to low on-site consumption the site was not suitable for a community share offer. Funding for the panels was secured through the BA Carbon Offset Fund £7,500 with the balance coming from KTCF’s own resources. This installation will be fully owned by KTCF.
Benefits & impact
The solar installation offered KTCF the opportunity to reduce carbon emissions and grid electricity consumption and to achieve operational cost savings. The site benefits from the feed-in tariff (FIT) for 20 years. Carbon savings of 2.5 tonnes a year on completion and total income from energy cost savings and the FIT is c. £1,000 a year. Through numerous events over 29,000 visitors annually visit KTCF for activities ranging from school education to corporate training. They are made aware of the solar PV project and it will serve as an educational tool on renewable energy.
Project deliverables
Planning permission: Permission was obtained in April 2018
EPC certificate: Obtained in May 2018
DNO: District Network Operator (UKPN) approved the connection on 31 July 2018.
Structural survey: The roof structural survey was conducted in June 2018 and determined that the barn roof needed to be strengthened. This work was carried out by a local building firm M W French in early February 2020.
On-site demand: As of 2019, on-site electricity consumption was low though this was expected to go up as there were plans to develop the site further.
Display: An innovative display has been designed to advise visitors on the performance of the system and the amount of carbon offset.
Feed-in tariff: The site was pre-registered for the feed-in tariff
Installation: The project was completed in February 2020 and as of the first week of June 2020, the panels had produced c. 5MWh of electricity and earned £188.