A theatre in the English East Midlands could soon be producing much of its own electricity, with plans to fit 232 solar panels on the roof of the Royal & Derngate in Northampton. The work was prompted by water leaking through the old felted flat roof, and by combining the re-roofing with a solar installation, West Northamptonshire Council avoids having to open up the roof twice.
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According to the planning application, the array would meet all of the theatre’s energy demand and cut its CO₂ emissions by 20,658 kg a year. Converted with the government’s standard emissions factor for grid electricity, the saving corresponds to around 100 MWh of generation a year.
When the curtain goes up
The challenge in this setting is that a theatre’s biggest power demand is during evening performances, when stage lighting, sound and heating or air conditioning are all running and solar output has dropped to little or nothing. Daytime demand from offices, rehearsals, the box office and catering can absorb some of the solar output, but on bright summer days much of this is likely to go straight to the grid. Over a full year, generation might match consumption on paper, but the theatre would still need to buy power from the grid for most of its shows. A battery would allow it to store midday output for the evening, a route already taken by some smaller venues such as the Players Theatre in Thame, Oxfordshire, which installed one with its rooftop panels to cover evening performances.
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Parts of the building are Grade II listed, but according to the application, the panels would go only on the modern section, which falls outside the listing. In June, the council put out a tender for the roof, windows and solar installation, and it has since awarded the contract, worth around £1.5 million, to MYC Group (UK) Ltd, with the work to be carried out while the building stays open to the public.
Solar is catching on across the theatre sector in the United Kingdom. Through its Theatre Improvement Scheme, the Theatres Trust has helped fund solar on venues such as Storyhouse in Chester and Cast in Doncaster, which is adding battery storage alongside its panels. The trust has also backed panels on listed buildings, supporting plans for the Pavilion Theatre in Bournemouth this summer on the grounds that they are reversible and would not harm the building’s character. (TF)
