“Shrinking the Footprint” is the Church of England’s campaign to urge all Christians and others, to consider carefully their response to climate warming and to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide (the carbon “footprint”). The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has encouraged us to take a walk to remind ourselves that we are part of wider creation. The current climate change situation is such that it will be a long walk - simply to restore the world’s balance we need to cut carbon emissions worldwide by 80% of current levels by 2050.

To see what could be done at St. Anne's a feasibility study was undertaken. Photovoltaic(pv) panels were considered the best option for our all electric church. PV panels convert the Sun’s energy into electricity which, when it is not used in the church, is exported to the electricity grid. For the technically minded, there are 45 pv panels on the South roof, covering it almost entirely, which can generate a peak power of 8.2 kW. The average power, of course, is a lot less, but in a year we expect to generate 7,000 kWh, saving about 4 tonnes per year of Carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere. The pv panels will export power over the life of the panels which is 25 years, during which time we will have saved over 100 tonnes of carbon dioxide emission and about 50% of our carbon footprint.
The photos below show the work done in installing the PV panels in late August/early September 2010. After final checks by our architect, and the commissioning tests all completed, the panels were switched on, on 8th September 2010. A display panel in the church shows how much electric power is being produced, the total power generated and the carbon dioxide saved.

Update-September 2011

The PV panels have now been operating for exactly a year now, and in that time have produced 9,375 kWh of electricity, which is 40% more than we expected. We have saved 4,270 kg of CO2 going into the atmosphere and reduced our carbon footprint to 32% of that in previous years.

Since our aim was to reduce our footprint to half , we have more than succeeded!


Taking delivery of the PV panels



Drilling holes for the fixing bolts


Fitting the support frame



Panels on the scaffolding and being placed on the roof



The fish, who has been on his lofty perch for 50 years, views the proceedings with
some arrogance.


Nathan Bragg, Microgeneration Ltd's Technician, wiring up the inverter


PV panels in place



Fr Steve and Nathan looking at a job well done!