Issue - meetings

Report of Corporate Director for Communities, Environment and Resident Services

Roisin Hickey, Energy Projects Officer (Solar Hub), presented the report and stated the following:

(a)  Nottingham City Council (NCC) own and operate over 3,200 domestic solar PV systems installed on NCC social homes. These assets are split into two phases: Phase 1 - which were purchased via the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and Phase 2 - which are owned directly by NCC;

(b)  around 10% of the total portfolio are installed at private houses where a tenant has opted to purchase the property under the right to buy scheme after solar panels were installed;

(c)  NCC also owns and operates around 30 individual commercial solar PV systems, installed on operational buildings, and commercial buildings owned by NCC and leased privately;

(d)  around 95% of assets receive Feed-in Tariff (FiT) payments, which was a government incentive to install renewable generation. The FiT income for both phases is detailed in Table 1 of the report;

(e)  the commercial solar PV systems installed on NCC’s operational buildings also offer bill savings, as the building can use some free electricity produced by the solar panels rather than paying to import electricity from the grid. These significant bill savings to the authority are also detailed in Table 1 of the report;

(f)  funding for maintenance works has been secured via several budgets:

Phase 1: budget has been secured for this financial year, FY 2025/26 and FY 2026/27. This will be funded via the HRA, and the Solar Hub will re-charge them quarterly for all works completed during the period. HRA spend on solar maintenance has been agreed with the relevant Programme Manager in Housing Services;

Phase 2 & Commercial: budget has been secured for this financial year. Funds will be drawn down from reserve and allocated to cost centre 13021. It is anticipated that the budget allocated for this financial year will not be completely spent by March 2025. This has led to the recommendation for a sinking fund/reserve to be requested to be set up to ensure that the funding for the maintenance costs is available moving forward into the future financial years, thereby reducing possible impact on future Medium Term Financial Planning;

(g)  currently, an annual payment of approximately £220,000 is made from the General Fund to the HRA to repay a loan that funded the installation of the solar panels. There is a LKD currently in progress to transfer ownership of Phase 2 domestic assets to the HRA which would remove this payment. Should this be agreed, funding for the next two financial years will come from the savings this would release. If not agreed, budget for the next two financial years would need to be identified elsewhere at a later date;

(h)  the invitation to tender will stipulate that we may spend up to £2,299,498, but there will be no commitment to spend this in total. Table 2 of the report gives a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56