Community-owned solar scheme wins top award in railway ‘Oscars’

A community-owned solar scheme has taken the top prize for sustainability at this year’s National Rail Awards – the railway’s very own Oscars.

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) and the Community Benefit Society Energy Garden won the Environmental Excellence Award for a scheme which aims to transform energy generation on the UK’s railways.

Energy Garden covers GTR’s railway depot roofs with community-owned solar panels at Streatham Hill in Drewstead Road, Selhurst in Croydon as well as Bedford Cauldwell Walk in Bedford, and Three Bridges in West Sussex.

These projects provide clean energy for use onsite at GTR depots and export surplus energy to company partners verified to meet high standards of social and environmental performance.

This generates profits to fund Energy Garden’s initiatives, including urban greening projects and environmental education programmes for school children and young adults from deprived inner London boroughs.

Judges at the prestigious awards ceremony said: “Public transport has long been regarded as one of the key solutions to the climate crisis. But this project takes it a step further.

“This not-for-profit uses the vast empty and often ugly space of depot roofs to generate clean energy at no upfront cost to the operator.”

Energy Garden is the largest community energy organisation in London. It raises 100 per cent of the capital costs needed to develop the solar on these rail depots from the community.

The scheme’s leaders say this concept can be easily scaled up and deployed across the rail industry, to take advantage of other under-utilised depot roofs.

GTR’s head of environment, Jason Brooker, said: “We’re in a climate and ecological crisis and we need to be challenging the norms and looking at innovative new ways of doing things.

“The partnership GTR has with Energy Garden is a fantastic example of doing just that, and it’s something we can all get behind.”

Energy Garden opened its first solar scheme at Streatham Hill Depot in 2021.

Equipped with 578 solar panels, the depot generates more than 200,000kWh a year, saving 50 tonnes of CO2e emissions annually.

Based on the success of the Streatham Hill train depot, GTR and Energy Garden has began to install 6,000 more solar panels on three further train depot roofs – Selhurst in Croydon, Cauldwell Walk in Bedford and Three Bridges in East Sussex

Over 20 years, these will save more than 9,000 tonnes of CO2e emissions, according to GTR.

Pictured top: GTR and Energy Garden team receive their Environmental Excellence Award at the National Rail Awards 2024 (Picture: GTR)