CHARITY workers have a sunny outlook after the largest set of solar panels in the East Midlands were installed atop their new Lincoln home.

A new £3m facility has been created for the Lincolnshire Employment Accommodation Project, which helps vulnerable young people aged 16 to 25 gain independent living skills, at Homer House in Monson Street.

And thanks to a grant from the Social Enterprise Investment Fund they have had 80 photovoltaic and solar thermal panels added to provide an environmentally-friendly supply of electricity and hot water.

Heidi Walton, the partnership's general manager, said the energy bill savings would allow more money to be spent on helping people.

She said: "The savings will really contribute to us as a charity. The money we don't have to spend on electricity and heating water will allow us to extend some services."

The panels have been installed by two Lincolnshire firms – FreeWatt, of Stow, and 4Solar, of Binbrook.

Gary Dixon, engineering manager at FreeWatt, who installed the photovoltaic equipment, said the panels create enough electricity to power about five average homes.

He said: "Each panel creates 210 watts and there are 80 panels.

"Over the course of a year that means they'll produce about 14,500 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity.

"The average family house uses about 3,300kWh per year – so it's almost five domestic properties worth."

Lee Sutton, of 4Solar, who installed the solar thermal panels that will heat the water, said they should provide more than half the hot water needed for the 18-bedroom, three-storey building.

He said: "We've installed 12sq m, which is about 120 tubes.

"Each one is vacuum sealed and contains an anti-freeze type liquid which is heated by the sun.

"The liquid then goes to a heat exchanger where it helps heat two 400-litre water tanks.

"It should help provide more than 50 per cent of the hot water the building needs annually."

The creation of the new Homer House facility has been a partnership between local building firm Lindum, the NHS and LEAP.

Lindum's Neil Coote said it had been a real community effort.

He said: "We began work on this building two years ago and we're due to hand it over in about a month, but we're ahead of schedule."

For more information on the work at Homer House, visit www.leap.uk.com/page/22