Grindleford is a village which lies in the Derwent valley in the Peak District National Park.

St Helens was started in 1910, though its construction was interrupted by WW1 with the nave being added later. The building is not listed but is light, airy and has a beautiful simplicity. It is much loved and also houses the community shop located within the vestry. This sells groceries along with snacks and hot drinks making it popular with locals and visitors alike. Well worth a visit!

The building is used for worship every Sunday, with a small but loyal congregation. Christmas, Easter and harvest festival see larger numbers.

 Why was the project done? The QI confirmed what we already suspected. The roof was in a poor state, and a bad storm could prove disastrous. We decided that maybe we could do something better and go for a new roof that helped to generate the electricity we use.

What did you do?  

A group of us are concerned to do what we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We went to look at St Michaels in Shirley, near Ashbourne. They have a heat pump as well as solar panels.

The heat pump is something we would consider when the time comes, but we decided to go for the solar option first.

Decarbonisation doesn’t need to happen all in one big project. After all, our church wasn’t built like that!

Having a new roof gave us a chance to have the panels as an integral part of the roofs structure. This looks really good, and the appearance is important with the church being in a national park.

How did the process go?

To work out what we wanted to do we had to gather a lot of information.

We used our metered bills to establish that we used about 10,000 kWh per year. So we wanted to get a system which would get as close to that as possible. As the church is mostly used on Sundays it seemed sensible to store some energy in a battery for when we needed it. Any extra would be sold back to the grid.

We got in touch with a company to fit the panels through a contact in the community.

They made suggestions about the number and power rating of the panels which we could have as well as the size and location of the battery. We also spoke to out insurers. There are rules which need to be followed, especially about battery locations.

As we were replacing the roof as well, we needed an architect to draw up plans. It was important to make sure that the roof would be strong enough to support the panels which are heavier than roof slates.

The architect considered how the roof would look before and after. They produced a plan showing views from different angles.

Our church lies in the Peak District National Park. As such, we needed to apply for planning permission. The architect helped us to go through this. My best advice would be to talk to your planning officer as early as possible. If they are not happy with the original plan, then they may suggest an alternative.

I think that the hardest parts of the whole process was coping with the unexpected.

As we are close to the river and surrounded by trees we needed to have a bat survey done. These needed to happen at specific times of the year to match parts of the bat’s life cycle.

As we found that we had an active bat population we had the roof designed to include spaces from them.

The bats led to us needing to change the type of insulation which we could use too.

The unexpected hold ups cost us time, but in that time the rules relating to VAT on energy saving materials for charities changed, which saved us some money!

How did you find funding for the work?

We were fortunate that most of the funding came from a bequest The cost of the total project was £120,000.

There are a number of different funding sources available. See https://www.churchofengland.org/resources/churchcare/net-zero-carbon-church/short-guide-grants-and-projects-help-your-church-get

Please get in touch with netzero@derby.anglican.org  for up to date information about grants and funding.

In terms of timing the faculty process took around 9 months. We made sure we kept on top of it by being prompt with replies whenever we could. The work was completed quite quickly once everything was in place.

What was the result?

We are very pleased with the results. The new roof looks really smart and we get a lot of comments about how good it looks. The insulation has made an appreciable difference to how warm the church is.

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It is also a great feeling to know that we have taken an important step to protect and support our building and the wider environment for now and for generations to come.

This positive feeling has spurred us on, and we are now looking at ways in which we can reduce heat loss from our windows.

 The new solar roof coincided with the community shop starting to serve hot drinks. These are very popular with visitors, walkers and cyclists. The good news is that despite the kettles being on the boil throughout opening hours, our bills have not increased at all. So the panels have helped us to do more (and raise funds) without spending any more. Through our electricity company we get a good rate (around 15p/kW) to sell any surplus electricity back to the grid.

The battery allows us to use ‘homegrown’ electricity to keep the lights on in the evening and on gloomy days without drawing any energy from the grid.

What would you say to someone thinking about a similar project?

Communication is really important.

Keep the whole congregation, your neighbours and the wider community informed and onboard. Treat contact with planners, the DAC and architects etc as conversations. Don’t be scared to ask for advice and help.

There were lots of unexpected pitfalls which cropped up. The bat surveys had to be done at specific times of year.  The presence of the bats meant we had to alter aspects of the roof to allow for them.

At first we thought that it would be a fairly straight forward process, but it took a lot of time and perseverance. It helps if there are several of people involved who can all share the load.