On Saturday, the Bishop of Buckinghamshire, Alan Wilson, and the Archdeacon, Karen Gorham, were invited to a service at Wing Church to give thanks for the completion of a project to put solar pV panels on the Anglo-Saxon Church. The bishop blessed the project and the archdeacon led the intercessions. They are both very supportive of initiatives like this that reduce the carbon footprint of church buildings.
Wing Church are pioneers, being one of a handful of churches to have installed pV panels on church roofs, and they are now approved to receive Feed-In-Tariffs and to supply 'green' electricity to the National Grid. This is mainly thanks to Martin Findlay, who found the funding and applied for the Faculty, the English Heritage and Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings approval and the planning permission.
Martin was inspired when he was watching 'Songs of Praise' which featured the project to put the solar panels on the roof of St Denys Church, Sleaford, Lincolnshire. The solar panels on Wing church cost £50 000 and will halve the electricity bills of the church, as well as provide £3 500 per year of income from the Feed-In-Tariffs for the next 25 years. Martin is committed to trying to make the church 'carbon neutral', and his next project is to get the church heated using a heat pump.
