The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Maroons go green with solar panels
Keith chairman Andy Troup says the installation of solar panels at Kynoch Park will improve the club’s carbon footprint and lower costs.
With the help of a grant from the Edintore Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund the Maroons have fitted panels to the roof of the function hall at their ground.
The panels, which cost around £35,000, will be commissioned later this week, three years after the Keith board first considered the idea of solar power.
Club chief Troup said: “One of our biggest costs as a club is electricity for heating, floodlights and that sort of thing.
“As a board we’ve been speaking about it for about three seasons, but when
Covid hit everything was put on hold.
“We were very lucky to get a grant from Edintore Wind Farm Community Benefit Fund in Keith, which we’re incredibly grateful for and which was a huge help.
“They’ve helped to pay for the solar panels and along with funding from the club we’ve managed to make this happen.”
Although acquiring the panels has been a major undertaking, in the long run they should deliver significant savings for Keith.
Troup explained: “Moving forward with the prices of gas and electricity we’re hoping once the panels are up and running we’re hoping we won’t be paying for electricity.
“The system has batteries which store the power and then when we’re at the ground we’ll use it.
“When the batteries are full the power automatically goes into the grid and we get a payback from the grid.
“So between what we store in the batteries and the payback we’ll get from the grid we shouldn’t have any electricity bills.
“If we can get to the stage where we don’t have that electricity bill every month it makes a big difference.
“During the winter months our bill was £800£1,000 a month which is a big saving, but obviously there’s a huge outlay to start with.”
Troup is also conscious of Keith’s carbon footprint and is pleased the club will now be powered by renewable energy.
Moving forward he is also investigating other things the Moray club can do to become greener.
Troup said: “With the carbon footprint of the club we’re looking at all avenues to cut that down.
“We all look at it and think about it in different ways, but everyone has a part to play.
“If everyone does a little bit across the whole world it can make a big difference.
“We look at it a lot at my work and it was something we started looking at when it comes to the football club and what we could do to improve our carbon footprint.
“We feel there are things we could do and this is one of them. LEDs for the floodlights would be the next phase and then we’re looking at other things.”