SAVE THE DATE: We've teamed up with Mallaig, Morar and Arisaig Lunch Club to host 'A Big Lunch' on Saturday 6th June, to celebrate 25 years of Mallaig and Morar Community Centre. Please come along and join us, and if you have any photos or videos of events that you would be willing to share, we'd love to see them! We're hoping to make a slideshow of memories from the last 25 years to show on the day!
Those of you who use the Community Centre, and those of you who just drive by it, may have noticed that we now have solar panels installed; the latest in a series of energy efficiency improvements that have taken place over the last year or so. We started with grants from the Highland Third Sector Interface Sustainable Communities Fund, and The Highland Council Community Regeneration Fund, which allowed us to install more efficient and controllable heating throughout the Community Centre part of the building. However, as the windows were the original windows, and technology has moved on in the 25 years since they were installed, we also recognised that replacing these with more efficient triple glazing would reduce energy loss and make the heating more efficient. We were able to apply for a Business Energy Scotland SME Loan, which was interest free, and came with cashback (effectively a grant), reducing the overall cost. Because the Library and College are leased separately and have their own electricity supply, Business Energy Scotland could not support improvements to this part of the building, but we were able to apply to the SSE Hydro Fund for match funding to replace the windows in this part of the building, and to match fund our application to CARES for the final piece in the jigsaw, solar panels, inverters and battery storage.
In total, the projects have cost £90,000, and should make the Community Centre more sustainable going forward. There are 94 solar panels installed, 64 on the road side, and a further 34 on the seaward side, and the windows (excluding the round windows) have all been replaced with energy efficient UPVC windows which will require less maintenance than the previous wooden ones.
In 2009, when the Community Centre first started looking into renewable energy, solar technology was not as advanced. It was mostly used to heat water, which was then pumped round the radiators in the building, and this was not compatible with our storage heating. At this time, we looked at installing a small wind turbine at the edge of West Bay car park, which led to objections from as far away as Canada and New Zealand. At the time, I wrote an article for West Word, which stated,
“The MMCCA committee and directors did not start to investigate the possibility of wind turbines lightly, but the reality is that the centre is not profitable due to high energy costs, and we have to do something. Unfortunately, although wind turbines are not always the best option for providing renewable energy, the situation and power usage at the Community Centre make them the best option for us.” Needless to say, the strength of feeling about installing a wind turbine, meant that the project did not proceed.
As you can imagine, the issue with high energy costs has not gone away, and over the 17 years since 2009, has indeed got much worse. Over the years, we have looked at various options for the building, including air source heat pumps, but have never been able to come up with a workable solution. Our MONTHLY electricity bills are regularly over £1,000, although lower in the summer months when the heating is not required. Energy costs are our single biggest cost over a year. Our last contract had a standing charge of £3 per day, which meant it was costing £90 per month before we even turned on a light, and standing charges are constantly increasing! While we try to keep prices affordable for those using the centre, we have to cover the electricity cost somehow. As a result, we have been limited in the investment we could make in the building over the last number of years, especially since covid.
Thankfully, the improvements in solar technology, and in the options for electric heating for the building, have meant that solar has become a more practical option for us; and reducing energy loss through installing new windows should also help. We haven’t gone as far as replacing the Velux windows yet, although this might become a future project. We will also monitor the energy stored and used from the batteries, as it may be that we add to the battery bank over the coming years.