PLANS to install solar panels on more Channel Island Coop stores are under way.
Mark Cox, the company’s chief executive, said that work to introduce panels on some of the Coop’s largest stores could begin before the end of the year.
The business already has solar instalments on the roofs of its premises in Grouville, Five Oaks and Trinity, generating around 52 megawatts annually.
However, Mr Cox said the Coop was ‘keen to do more’.
‘We have two big schemes in planning at the moment,’ he continued, revealing that this included designs for solar panels on the roofs of the company’s Grand Marché stores in St Helier and St Peter – which could be installed before the end of the year.
His comments came shortly after an Islander suggested on Twitter that solar panels installed in car parks could be a more beneficial use of land, ‘especially on a tiny island where space is at a premium’.
However, Mr Cox said that it was ‘much more cost-effective to use existing support structures and under-utilised spaces’.
‘As soon as you start to add new structures it increases the cost significantly,’ he added.
His comments were reflected by Environment Minister Jonathan Renouf, who said that solar panels in car parks ‘were perhaps not the best idea, and not cost-effective’.
‘We’re looking at the potential [of solar panels] on government buildings, which is something we can directly control.
‘The argument I saw was whether we should install it in car parks because there is lots of open space, but the number of sites where that might be appropriate in Jersey would be very few,’ he continued.
‘For example, you would need [an area with] very little shade.
‘There’s potential for that sort of thing, but you have to ask yourself where to do that.
‘It feels to me like there’s not huge public appetite to cover loads of fields with solar panels,’ he added.
