Via word of mouth, we have been given the opportunity to receive up to approx 100 solar panels from University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust as they are trying to get rid of them. They are at about 60-70% capacity of what they would be when new. They are just the panels as far as we know and thus would required additional equipment to be functional.
We have been offered them for free as long as we ta.ke care of picking them up. There is a chance that the deal may fall through, especially as we are organising this in our spare time as best we can. @Mani and @breadbin have been in touch directly. We also formed a small working group in a Signal chat to coordinate under the name Solar Panel Abundance.
We have been in discussions with our contact at the trust for a couple of weeks and have also made plans for free storage at a rural housing co-operative.
We plan to distribute amongst all of the Birmingham housing co-operatives e.g. Gung Ho, Varna, Paula’s House and Stirchley Co-operative Development. We can also deicide what other projects to give them to.
It makes sense to also sell a large chunk of them to generate income for Co-operation Birmingham to cover the costs of hiring vehicles and additional equipment and fitting.
We believe we will need to hire two Luton vans (or make two trips) to pick up the panels from the site in Stafford and drive them to the rural housing co-operative for storage and distribution. We understand that a Luton van will cost £200 per day for hire.
This is a significant investment for Co-op Brum when our OpenCollective balance is a bit low (£475.24 at time of writing) but it’s too good an opportunity to miss for the social economy movement.
Our plan is to use £300 of Co-op Brum money to pay for transport and raise additional funds as donations via a sub project. We think there will be lots of allies willing to donate. Ideally we would raise approx £600 to cover all costs.
We will also need lots of help physically shifting the panels into the vans and unloading them on the other end. Details TBC.
Feel free to ask any questions or make suggestions. This is quite a last minute big project but it’s a good idea to take serendipitous opportunities when they arise.