Frankham were commissioned by East Sussex County Council to undertake the RIBA Stage 1-4 design of six Solar PV sites in Phase 1.
- East Sussex County Council
All sites were to remain operational for the duration of the works.
Some of the sites are buildings used for the care and teaching of at-risk children/adults, and some are schools where children are being taught on a daily basis. To manage this we adopted the following approach:
- Areas were clearly demarked to prevent unauthorised access to the work area and works were planned on a rolling basis with the site management team.
- Constant communication with the site management teams was maintained to ensure day-to-day running of the buildings was not interrupted.
- Works within schools were typically conducted during school holiday periods or outside of school operational hours.
All Phase 1 sites had to fully comply with the requirements of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, run by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
Constant reviews and communication with the Salix delivery and carbon and technical teams was maintained at all stages during Phase 1 to ensure that their specific requirements were met. This was managed by Frankham for an installation/onsite perspective and by the client, East Sussex County Council, from a financial one.
Our approach and ongoing attention to this aspect of the projects resulted in funding being granted.
All sites had to obtain planning permissions from the local planning authority.
Designs were submitted ahead of schedule so that adequate time was available for re-designs. They were triple checked to ensure they met with the relevant standards of the local planning authority. As a result, the local planning authority had no grounds to reject the design proposals.
Meetings with outside authorities including South Downs National Park were held to facilitate open forum discussion.
- The projects were completed to a high level of workmanship which has resulted in a rolling programme of further Solar PV sites.
- The Frankham Team supported the client to achieve all required aspects of the Government funding.
- The individual sites are benefiting from a reduction in their energy usage which is helping to reduce the carbon output of the building and subsequently, East Sussex County Council’s overall carbon footprint. The table below evidences the savings, for each site, in terms of kWh, £ and tonnes of CO2.
Please note that some of this data is extrapolated.
“Phase 1 PSDS Grant for 6 Solar PV Projects has been successfully completed and has met all requirements of the audit. Thank you for your input to the technical audit which made a valuable contribution to this positive outcome.”
Janette Ackroyd, East Sussex County Council
MEng (Hons)
