Although the west of the island is generally more known for its fabulous sunsets, now the sun’s rays are being put to another use in a trial that will see one of JT’s telephone exchanges using renewable energy. In the first trial of its kind by JT, 84 solar photovoltaic (PV) panels are being installed on the roof of the West Exchange in St Ouen’s Village.

JT’s 10-year Sustainability Strategy commits the company to move 50% of its energy consumption to renewable sources by 2025. This has already resulted in a successful project with the Little Green Energy Company in Sark to use the sun’s energy to help power the JT mobile network on the island.

In Jersey, JT is working with solar energy experts SunWorks to install the panels on the roof of the West Exchange building. The pilot will see the extent to which the solar can provide a supplementary source of electricity, if successful, it could be used across more sites around the island reducing JT’s reliance on the grid.

Tom Noel, JT’s Director of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability, said: “We made a clear promise when we launched our Sustainability Strategy that we would apply its principals across every part of our business. One of the most visible demonstrations of that is to install solar panels on prominent sites and we hope that the trial will tell us whether it will work elsewhere. As a technology business, we use a large amount of energy and if we can switch to renewable sources of power where possible,  we will make less impact on the planet – using energy generated in the sunniest place in the British Isles.”

Mark Brandon, Director of SunWorks, said: “When a company like JT comes to us with plans to use renewable energy in a practical way, we know we are dealing with a client that’s speaking the same language as us. It is important for the larger local businesses like JT to consider where their electricity comes from and make all efforts to use local resources for electricity generation. This supports the global transition to renewables and can deliver significant long term savings on electricity.”