A show of hands at the parish meeting indicated overwhelming support for douzenier Garry Collins’ proposal to shelve the idea after the constables admitted they were also unconvinced about solar power after making initial enquiries into the likely cost.
Senior constable Richard Leale told parishioners that an outline quote had been obtained from a potential supplier some months ago.
He asked for a steer about whether to invite other quotes to allow a full proposal to be taken to the parish meeting in March next year.
St Martin’s recently became the first douzaine to install solar panels as part of a major refurbishment of its parish rooms. It said it expected the move to save money in the long term.
At the Vale meeting, former harbour master and jurat Peter Gill suggested that further investigations could reveal that cost savings would be achieved by installing solar panels, not least as the cost of electricity continues to rise in the years ahead, and also thought it could be advantageous to be independent of the subsea cable and the European grid.
But most parishioners who spoke during a lengthy discussion said they were not persuaded by the payback period on installing solar panels to run lighting and heating in the douzaine room, which is currently fully funded by hiring out the space to various organisations. Concern was also expressed about ratepayers having to fund the initial outlay of tens of thousands of pounds in a single year.
The Guernsey Press recently reported that solar energy targets in the electricity strategy look set to be missed this year, with Guernsey Electricity estimating that just under 4MW had been installed across the island, about 1MW less than the States wanted to see by 2025.
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