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Solar panels and special places - finding the right balance
Responses from the Straw Poll can be seen at the bottom of this article . Have your say here
The English Heritage guidance on installing solar panels on church roofs is unlikely to change significantly because of the need to protect and preserve the features which make the buildings special.
Some parishes in the Diocese, such as Ledbury featured in the Summer issue of The NEWSpaper, have been able to install panels which cannot be seen from the ground. There have been calls, however, for planning rules to be eased so more churches can adopt solar power to cut power bills and as a concrete example of the Church's care for the environment.
John Yates, Inspector of Historic Buildings for English Heritage in the West Midlands Region, said Government planning guidance on solar panels and tiles on historic buildings and the Church's own faculty process were in place to preserve important buildings. "The principle behind all this is to protect what makes a building special and particularly what makes it special to the wider public," he explained.
Mr. Yates, who is a member of the Hereford Diocesan Advisory Committee for the Care of Churches, said: "Different conservation issues can find themselves in conflict and I believe this is something we have to take into account. The 
guidance isn't there just to please people with pointy heads it's there to protect a recognised public interest." He added: "I'd be surprised if there was much of a change in this because there usually are ways in which these competing issues can be met."
He accepted that south-facing church roofs might seem ideal locations for solar panels and said: "It's tantalising at the very least for the parish but the issue is that the church is special in many ways. It has its mission as a standing advertisement for the Christian faith but it is also culturally important." Sometime it was possible, as at Ledbury or St. Alkmund's Church in Shrewsbury for panels to be sited in a way that wasn't intrusive. "It's about balance and compromise and balancing competing public interests," he said.
Parishes looking to make use of renewable energy could look at other options he said: "If it would be too visually harmful to solar panels on the south facing roof s there anywhere else they can be put, say on the ground, or is there something else the parish can do. He cited Peterchurch which has a biomass boiler and Bridge Sollars where a ground source heat pump has been installed. Mr. Yates said it was important, too, to look at energy efficiency, particularly making greater use of church buildings.
English Heritage has published detailed guidance on solar panels on places of worship which is available from its website or on the News Plus pages of the Diocesan website - www.hereford.anglican.org
Response to this from the straw poll taken among our readers and congregations
We are called to be stewards of creation and should therefore take seriously the problem of global warming and be seen to be taking a lead in addressing this by making good use of the resources we have.
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I feel one of our main responsibilities is to preserve this world for future generations and the Church should be at the forefront of this purpose. Therefore I see the use of solar panels as a good way of caring for our environment and setting an example. Although most Churches are structurally beautiful their main purpose is a place of worship, which is mainly carried out inside the building and the use of solar panels would have little negative impact on the standard of worship.
Joanne Strickland - St Peters Church, Bromyard
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How can we possibly avoid doing this when they are such excellent sites and the world needs solar energy so much?
2. It isn't "my" roof. I would certainly back the PCC all the way if they proposed this (and I'm just getting them fitted on my own south facing roof).
3. There's bound to be some traditionalist who don't realise that the 21st C church cannot go on operating to medieval constraints (the Victorians would have had them on in a flash!). No doubt English Heritage will put their pennyworth in too (although they are less than keen on actually stumping up any pennies to pay for the orders they put on buildings!).
4. They just look different. Soon, God willing, they will be on every building in Britain that has a suitable roof and no one will think anything of it. And how often do you actually look up at the church roof anyway?
5. It is the installation cost against the economic and environmental benefits that should be considered.
Anne Lanyon Hogg
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We have to do all that we can to ensure future generations have sufficient power and I think the people who built our churches would be very happy that we make use of the roof area for something so productive.
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Always a good idea. The church could become the power provider for the community, with a bit of skill and development of ideas, and that would be a nice parable.
Sarah Cawdell
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On a modern church or on an undistinguished building I would have no reservations but on a historic church (or the Cathedral!) I would be worried.
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Our concern for people affected by climate change, and the need to limit carbon dioxide emissions must outweigh aesthetic niceties. After all, we allow telephones and electric light in listed properties that never had them when built, as they are now considered essential. Solar PV is also essential, in my opinion, as a partial, contributory, solution to carbon dioxide emissions and resultant climate change
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I think the Church should lead the way in an effort to reduce carbon emissions and this would be one way to set an example. However, many churches will not be suited to placing the panels on their roofs, which will spoil the appearance of the building. I question whether it will be allowed to make such alterations to the appearance of a listed building .
Joost Aartse-Tuyn
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I would suggest that as energy bills are rising by large percentages almost every few months then if churches can become more energy efficient it seems a clear logical step subject to how the finished project looks.
Joe Hodgson
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Panels should not be hidden, they should advertise the fact that the church is trying to be as environmentally friendly as possible