Yorkshire Coast Churches Make 243,000 Cups of Solar Powered Tea

A Yorkshire Coast churches’ solar project which has powered over 243k cups of tea has been shortlisted for a prestigious national award

Three Yorkshire coast churches have been key to a groundbreaking project which overall has produced enough energy to make over one million cups of tea – and has now been nominated for a prestigious national award.

Robin Hood’s Bay Methodist Church, Queens Street Methodist Church in Scarborough and Littlebeck Methodist Church in Whitby have been part of the pioneering “Tea and PV” scheme which supports installation of solar panels on church buildings.

The initiative is being run by the Yorkshire North & East Methodist District (YNEMD) and is one of just five schemes to be shortlisted in the People’s Energy (UK) category at the 2024 Ashden Awards, for which there were over 500 applications.

Tim O’Brien, net zero officer for YNEMD said:

“The name of the project, ‘Tea and PV’, tells you a lot about our thinking, PV stands for photovoltaic, which are the solar panels we’ve been putting on churches across our region, but the ‘tea’ part is just as important.

“This project is not just about delivering infrastructure, it’s about delivering a message as well. The Methodist Church is synonymous with cups of tea, so we wanted to have conversations over cups of tea about the sustainable nature of the church, and to communicate it to the users of those buildings.”

Tim believes the church have a huge role to play in raising awareness among communities about the positive impact renewable energy can make.

“There’s a wide range of understanding about these issues both among out membership and the wider users of our buildings. Around a quarter of a million people who are not members of the Methodist Church use our buildings in our district alone. That’s an awful lot of people coming through our doors from all walks of life.

“Some are more informed about these topics than others but the point of ‘Tea and PV’ is to give everyone a chance to talk about the changes and move towards a sustainable future together.”

Tim also feels the scheme plays strongly into the history of the Methodist Church.

“In the 19th century the Methodist Church was known for its social activism, working in areas perhaps other churches didn't go among the poor, the working class, and immigrants.

“My vision is that in the 21st century we're known for our environmental activism. I think it’s a core mission for all faith groups that they should see this as a matter of justice, in the sense that we are producing carbon and other people are suffering because of it.”

Tim says that the Tea and PV scheme has had huge success in reaching people who might have previously had negative feelings towards solar panels.

“At one of our churches one member couldn’t see the point in the solar panels. Her grandson happened to be picking her up from an event and he saw the panels and the display in the church showing how much energy they were producing.

“He said ‘this is amazing’ and was impressed that the church had taken these steps. Suddenly his grandmother saw the point of it and went from being sceptical that we were wasting money to seeing the value.

“It’s lots of little conversations like that, which we don’t often hear, where we can have an impact, and I think that’s why this scheme is up for such a prestigious award.”

Littlebeck is the smallest energy producer of the churches involved in the scheme. Littlebeck has produced 200kWh, enough for around 8,300 cups of tea, while Queens Street has made enough for over 100,000 cups of teas (2,480kWh) and Robin Hood’s Bay has produced enough for over 135,000 cups of tea (3,250kWh).

Tim adds:

“We should be an exemplar to the communities around us, Big or small, it’s important that we are doing something and playing our part.”

The Ashden Awards will be held on Thursday 27 June and if they win the People’s Energy (UK) category, YNEMD will be given a £10,000 prize which will be invested back into community schemes.

You can read more about the Yorkshire North & East Methodist District’s work on reaching net zero at https://www.yorkshirenemethodist.org/our-work/net-zero/

See all the nominees and find out more about the 2024 Ashden Awards at https://ashden.org/awards/2024-ashden-award-announcements/