Sunny Side Solar is donating 46 solar panels to what may be the island’s largest charity feeding programme – the initiative at Christ Church Warwick.

Sunny Side Solar said the gift would substantially reduce the Belco energy demand at the church so that more money could be spent on food. And less carbon will go into the air.

The panels are being installed by Solar Energy Solutions, the same installer of the 40 panels Sunny Side Solar donated to Meals on Wheels.

SES was started by Keeivan Bailey and Chioke Hayward. They have successfully drilled more than 1,500 holes in Bermuda roofs, with no leaks.

SES trained under the expertise of Sunny Side Solar co-founder Nick Hutchings and uses technology for filling the holes that has improved substantially over the years.

Mr Hutchings and fellow Bermudian Claire Smith founded the organisation with a mission.

Ms Smith said: “In a year and a half, Sunny Side Solar has installed 350kW of power on over 40 roofs, with all profits donated to charity installs.

“Our mission to reduce the cost of solar has come to fruition and our clients are making an average return on their investment of 15 per cent – even before the recent rate increase!

“The life of our panels is 25 to 30 years and the sun always shines so it’s a pretty much risk-free investment. We have quite a few clients saving over $500 a month on their electric bills and lowering their carbon footprint. That’s what we call a win-win.”

Sir David Frederick Attenborough, the English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author is quoted: "Three trillion kWh of sunlight each hour a day is captured by flowers all over the world. That is 20 times the amount of energy we would need to sustain modern civilisation’s energy needs.

“By transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable sources such as wind, solar and thermal, we will have set up an energy system that can sustain our needs essentially for forever."

Bermuda solar uptake has been impressive, but Sunny Side Solar principals said that with 30,000 roofs on the island, there remained much more to do.

They believe in a faster move towards renewables and said the goal of achieving energy independence remained a distant dream.

Ms Smith said: “In addition to saving you money and helping address the global climate crisis, distributed solar can also help to make island-wide power delivery more resilient in the event of a catastrophic weather event.

“Hurricanes are strengthening – which is why our American manufactured panels are rated to 175mph wind speeds.

“The planet is in trouble and every one of us can do something right away. Install solar.”

Sunny Side Solar donates all of its net profit towards providing solar for low-income households struggling to pay their electricity bill, registered charities and important civic institutions.

https://www.sunnysidesolar.org/