​Solar panels to help power Barrytown

Thirty solar panels and batteries are being installed at the Barrytown Hall to improve the area’s emergency resilience.

The Grey District Council is working with the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) through its Community Renewable Energy Fund (CREF) to equip community buildings with photovoltaic (solar) systems and battery banks.

The initiative will strengthen community resilience by providing access to power when the electricity grid is down during an emergency or other outage.

At other times, the solar systems will reduce electricity costs and lower the carbon footprint of each building.

The Barrytown Hall, built in 1929, is getting panels on the roof of the new extension.

Hall chairman Roger Ewer has worked on the hall, which was built by locals, since 1972.

“We are really pleased to have this opportunity, which will make us more versatile.

“We had been thinking about putting solar in, but the cost was a barrier.”

It would improve the area’s resilience, he said, noting a number of community halls around the country had been lost. Now, it could future-proof the hall and make it disaster-ready.

“We will still be here.”

The project is being done alongside West Coast Civil Defence Emergency Management.

Council Group Manager Community Penny Kirk said the council had been allocated funding from EECA’s Community Renewable Energy Fund. Communities are committing co-funding, and no ratepayer funding is involved.