A TROWBRIDGE church will be looking to the skies for its energy from now on, after parishioners installed solar panels on the roof.

In a bid to reduce its carbon footprint the Zion Baptist Church in Union Street was fitted with 18 solar panels on Tuesday.

The panels are estimated to produce around 2,850 kilowatt hours (KWh) per year.

That energy will be fed in to the National Grid, with the church receiving payments for the power it supplies.

One KWh is equivalent to one unit of electricity shown on a typical household bill.

Project manager David Skull said: “The grid pays us money for those units, which means we are effectively getting our energy for nothing.

“In fact, we will be generating more than enough electricity for our own needs. We estimate we will produce 80 per cent more than we need.

“For us, the by-product of having the solar panels is that we are getting extra money we wouldn’t otherwise have had.

“It makes our church more sustainable and also considerably reduces our carbon footprint. It will save 1.6 tonnes of CO2 a year.”

Church organisers believe they will be one of the first churches in Wiltshire to install solar panels.

The installation process will take up to a week to complete.

Church pastor Stuart Burgess said: “We know that the church is much more than just a building, but, because we have an old building that is part of the history and heritage of Trowbridge, we have a responsibility also to care for it in the best way we can.

“This means we need to make sure that its future is sustainable. Cutting our energy costs is part of that.”

The church will begin to benefit from the solar panels as soon as they start working.

Payments of 41.3p per unit will be coming its way and that revenue will be guaranteed for the next 25 years.

At that rate, the £13,500 cost of the solar panels should be paid off within 10 years.

Mr Burgess said: “We know that energy costs the environment a great deal in more than just financial terms, so anything we can do to put something back is important.

“Producing extra energy like this benefits more than just us. Even a slight reduction in the amount of electricity that the grid has to get from other sources can make a difference.

“Our spare electricity won’t be wasted.”