771 Torfaen homes fitted with solar panels (From South Wales Argus)

771 Torfaen homes fitted with solar panels

6:20pm Saturday 24th December 2011 in News By Alison Sanders

A SOCIAL landlord has fitted solar panels to 771 Torfaen homes.

Bron Afon Community Housing fitted the solar photovoltaic panels to the houses which will save more than £100,000 on their total annual heating bills.

The panels will help cut a household's bill by around £140 a year.

The landlord originally planned to borrow £26 million to fit panels to 3,600 homes but these plans had to be scaled back after the Westminster government announced it was cutting the amount it pays for excess electricity.

Bron Afon had to slash spending for fitting the solar panels by £16 million.

Bron Afon's chief executive, Duncan Forbes, said: "Staff and contractors have been working flat out to fit as many as possible before last week's deadline. When the bombshell dropped in October and we found out about the December 12 deadline we were determined to fit as many panels as possible."

Mr Forbes said the landlord managed to complete 19 homes a day.

He said: "This meant 19 sets of scaffolding going up and down which is a tough job in an area like Torfaen. Our staff and contractors were fantastic working seven days a week. The tenants were very understanding considering the speed that we had to do the work."