Carbon neutral church switch-on

A Newbury church has taken its first major step towards becoming carbon neutral this morning (Monday)

ST George's Church, Wash common has taken a big step towards becoming a carbon neutral church when it switched on 129 brand new solar panels on its roof.

The Rev Paul Cowan was joined by members of the congregation in the official switch-on at 11am this morning (Monday).

The congregation was to be joined for the ceremony by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, and former mayor of Newbury, Kuldip Singh Kang.

Work on strengthening the roof still continues, but the solar panels were installed after a dramatic last-minute push to raise money before an earlier Government grant expires later this month.

Three weeks ago, Mr Cowan told his congregation that their plans to become carbon neutral may have to be shelved because of a lack of funds, but the congregation responded by donating more than £40,000 within 12 hours.

The installation work started just four days later.

Mr Cowan said that they hoped to generate 20,000 kilowatt peak output, which would be enough to cover the church's needs and mean it would not have to pay electricity bills but instead become a green energy provider to the grid.

The enormous and high barrel vaulted ceiling has also been taken down and is to be replaced with a new insulated ceiling.

For the full story and pictures, see this week's Newbury Weekly News on Thursday.