The One London party has accused Ken Livingstone of wasting more than half a million pounds of taxpayers’ money by installing solar panels on the roof of City Hall which “will generate electricity worth less than £4,000 per year”.
Following the official opening of the project One London Assembly Member and Mayoral candidate Damian Hockney said solar panels “are not cost-effective, especially in northern climes like London. There are plenty of ways to save energy that cost nothing or even save money. Wasting taxpayers’ money like this brings the environmental movement into disrepute.”
“This folly, combined with the expensive flop at Palestra House, home of the pointless LDA, prove conclusively that solar and wind projects are not economically viable.”
Last October the LDA told Hockney’s colleague Peter Hulme Cross that “The total amount of electricity produced since the solar panels were installed and connected to the distribution network in October 2006 to September 2007 is 45,264kWh (11 months operation) and currently exceeds the predicted output of the solar panels. The economic value of this electricity is £3,560”
Speaking last night Mr Hockney said he was “calling for an urgent cost/benefit review of all the Mayor’s climate change projects. Anything positive, such as encouraging householders to install better loft insulation, will be kept. The grandstanding nonsense will be scrapped. The savings will be passed on to Londoners in council tax cuts.”
