Gloucestershire club on target for a sustainable future
‘From the start, we were passionate about being an inclusive, environmentally friendly venue for the whole community,’ explains Roger Crang, Director of Development at Deer Park Archers. The not-for-profit archery club was established in 1995 and is now regarded as one of the top centres for the activity in the country.
When the club moved to its current former-landfill site in Shurdington, Gloucestershire, in 2014, they knew they could service the community better by diversifying. ‘We knew we were great at archery but even with accessible membership fees it’s just not that widespread a hobby,’ says Crang.
Embracing Sport England and local council strategy, the club now provides a clubhouse, short-mat bowling, radio-controlled car racing and – making the most of its surrounding low light-pollution – hosts an astronomy club. They have also planted 300 metres of hedgerow and more than 2,000 trees on their site since taking up residence.
In 2021 the club turned its attention to energy efficiency and Tewksbury Borough Council signposted the EU-funded Target 2030 scheme. Severn Wye’s business energy specialist identified significant potential savings on their estimated annual energy spend of £1,200. The club secured a Target 2030 grant of just under £10,500, which was matched by a Gloucestershire County Council grant as part of the Build Back Better scheme, to supplement their own long-term investment of £24,500 towards a 26.72kWp solar PV array and some LED lighting.
Unlike most other sports facilities, Deer Park Archers uses little energy during the day but needs heat and light for activities in the evenings. This means most of their solar energy is exported to the grid and, particularly in winter, power in the evenings comes from the grid. The forward-thinking management committee factored this in from the start, and will install efficient storage radiators which they’ll charge during the day to heat the sports hall at night. The smart heating system will work out how much solar energy it needs for the radiators before exporting the rest.
‘We need to run for a good few months before we get an accurate picture,’ says Crang, ‘but we know our daytime electricity use is more than covered.’ They’ve enjoyed an improvement in comfort levels too: ‘Despite higher prices we’ve felt more able to put radiators on purely because we know we’re generating some income and reducing daytime cost to zero.’
Over the lifetime of the installations, the club’s savings will add up to more than £518,000.
The experience has triggered enthusiasm for further measures and they are going ahead with a grey-water system that will use rainwater to flush the toilets. Plans for a new covered archery area include making sure the roof can accommodate another solar array, and diverting rainwater from the building to a neighbour’s agricultural tents.
As Deer Park Archers’ de facto expert in grant applications, Crang knows their community values help secure funding. For him, the Target 2030 award didn’t just have monetary value; it further improved the club’s credentials with other grant-giving bodies.
