Steam railway installs solar panels to cut bills

A steam railway in Kent has installed rooftop solar panels to cope with rising energy costs.

The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway fitted panels to two engine sheds, its cafe and its exhibition hall at New Romney station, as well as its restaurant at Dungeness station.

Kent Community Energy, the group behind the project, estimated the scheme could cut up to £18,000 from the miniature heritage railway's annual energy bill.

Railway general manager Stuart Ross said that running costs had "increased hugely" in recent years because of "spiralling energy costs".

The solar panels are forecasted to generate 110,000 kWh per year, according to Kent Community Energy.

The railway has not had to invest in the panels themselves but instead will buy the electricity they generate at a "lower cost" for the duration of the 20-year contract, it said.

Ross said it would "help us to improve our environmental credentials while making cost savings".

Michael Bax, of Kent Community Energy, said: "Later this year, we hope to install a charger for electric vehicles in their car park and further solar to help a coal-burning railway keep saving on carbon emissions."

It is the first rooftop project for the group.

The railway, which opened in 1927, is to cut the ribbon on the new installation on Friday.

The government has committed up to £1bn of funding for local energy projects such as solar panels on community buildings.

"We are going further and faster in getting off the fossil fuel rollercoaster and onto clean homegrown power we control, because it is the only route to lower bills for good," a government spokesperson said.

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