Every Friday night, local kids turn up for a kick about on the football pitches at Galaxy Sports, on the edge of Grangemouth. Backlit by the flares from the nearby petrochemical works, these boys and girls have chosen to play football under the floodlights, rather than hanging out under the streetlights drinking. In this community, an industrial town where many residential areas are in the most deprived 10% of Scotland, the role of the coaches is about more than just facilitating the sessions - they’re adult mentors, fostering respect to each other and for their community.
To offer pitches at affordable rates on a Friday night, and to ensure they are inclusive, Galaxy Sports needs its paying users - and like everything else, this stopped during the COVID-19 lockdowns. But what didn’t stop, were the plans of site owner, Stephen Barr, to "show carbon the red card. He developed a proposal to power the floodlights with solar energy and storage, and to charge electric vehicles from sunshine, and secured support from Scottish Power’s Green Economy Fund. However, he needed the help of Scene, as community energy specialists, to navigate the technical, financial, environmental, planning, procurement, governance and development requirements to make the idea a reality.
Working within an overall project management role, Scene guided the project through all the barriers which came in its way. The project has also led to the creation of the Galaxy Foundation, a registered charity, to expand the community outreach activities of Galaxy Sports, helped in no small measure by the community benefit income generated from the solar panels.
With the local energy system up and running, carbon emissions at the site have been cut by more than half, through the use of LED floodlighting running off batteries charged by solar panels. Although the projected financial savings have been absorbed by escalating energy prices, the fact that the site is now generating most of its energy needs means it hasn’t had to escalate its own prices, and the Friday night football can continue.