Dubbed the Walthamstow Power Station project, a vision to put solar panels on every Walthamstow home has gained a wave of public support, reports Marco Marcelline
More than 130 local streets have expressed interest in a solar power project that campaigners hope could eventually see panels installed on every Walthamstow home that wants it.
Dubbed the Walthamstow Power Station project, it was started by dogged activists Dan Edelstyn and Hillary Powell, who slept on their roof for 23 days in November 2022 to fund the costs of installing solar panels on every house in their street.
The artists eventually raised a total of £113,000 which was then used to subsidise the costs of installing panels on 35 homes in Lynmouth Road.
Now the project is being expanded with the help of Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy, and it comes amid rising oil prices tied to geopolitical instability and war in the Middle East.
Solar panels don’t come cheap; the average upfront outlay for a standard 3 to 4kW solar panel system in the UK ranges from £5,000 to £8,000, including VAT and installation. For larger systems or those paired with battery storage, total installation costs can range from £8,000 to over £14,000.
At a public meeting about the project organised by Creasy on Wednesday, 30th April and attended by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, residents explored how they could make Walthamstow go solar.
Speaking to the Echo following the Willowfield School event, Creasy said: “At the moment, this project is about getting people and neighbours organised locally to figure out and create a number of options for how they can lower bills through solar energy. I want this to be as accessible as possible and I’m not interested in a scheme that isn’t for everyone in the community. Every person in Walthamstow should and can have access to clean, cheap energy.”
Creasy says that through ongoing conversations with energy providers and solar panel installers she’s “hopeful to pool together all sources of funding and cut outlay costs” for residents.
One of these potential funding pools is the government-run Great British Energy’s £1billion Local Power Plan, which aims to ensure that communities directly benefit from the energy they help to produce.
Speaking about the fund last week, Millband said: “I don’t decide who gets money from this fund but this is an incredibly exciting project, and I really wish you the best of luck with it – and count me as a massive supporter.”
He added: “This is about energy, and it is about cutting people’s bills. It is about ownership – and that’s important. It’s also about something else, though. Which is, the people in this room, I don’t think, feel hopeless, because they’ve all come to this meeting today.
“But lots of people in our country feel hopeless. They feel, I would say, at the outset, things can’t change. I think the very act of doing this tells people something. I think it says, ‘we care about what happens to you and our community’.”
According to Edelstyn and Powell, if the UK government was to install solar panels on every house in the country, the cost would be made back within a ten-year period.
During the 2024 General Election campaign when Edelstyn stood against Creasy as an independent candidate and won 288 votes, the Walthamstow MP offered to help expand the power station project and she organised a screening of their documentary POWER STATION in the Houses of Parliament last year.
Dan and Hilary are however keen to stress that their project receiving backing from Labour figures such as Creasy and Miliband does not mean they are politically aligned with the party.
“We’re endorsing Green candidates locally, and we found it a struggle to get the [Labour-run] council on board with our plans for a community-owned power station in the borough.
“So we’re conscious and wary of our plans potentially being co-opted by Labour for electioneering purposes, especially as they face a lot of pressure from the Greens.”
Ultimately though, they say they’re heartened by the support for the scheme the project is receiving from people across Walthamstow, and by the sheer numbers in the room last week.
Hilary said: “There was excitement and questions in the room about microgrids, equitable energy sharing and cooperative ownership and the next steps needed. There are still massive challenges [though] around actually accessing the government finances and legislation changes needed to make this happen at scale.”
Find out more about the POWER STATION project here
The next screening of POWER STATION in Waltham Forest is Friday 5th June, 7.30pm at Forest Cinema Walthamstow – book tickets here
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