£6,000
Saved per year
7
CO2 saved per year
Tonnes
39 kWp
System capacity
The Challenge
The last municipal lido to be built in London, Charlton Lido first opened in May 1939 in Hornfair Park, south-east London. It’s a 50m outdoor heated pool, operated by charitable social enterprise GLL, operator of Better leisure centres, and from Easter 2013, following a £2m refurbishment, it has been open all year round.
Keeping an outdoor pool open through the winter takes a lot of energy. Pumps and filtration run all day, alongside the gym, studio and changing facilities. For a charitable operator, every pound spent on electricity is a pound that isn’t going back into the facility, so cutting that cost mattered as much as cutting the carbon.
The Solution
Eden Sustainable designed and installed a 39 kWp rooftop solar PV system on the lido buildings. The array is made up of 84 high-efficiency 460W panels on the flat roof, feeding a single Solis 36kW inverter, with the generation lining up with the daylight hours when the lido is busiest.
Working on a historic, much-loved public venue meant planning the works around swimmers and members. Eden managed the full project, from design and the grid connection with UK Power Networks to installation and commissioning. The system has been generating since 2022.
The Outcome
The system now saves around £6,000 a year on electricity and avoids 7 tonnes of CO₂ annually. For a lido that has served south-east London since 1939, it’s a practical step towards keeping a historic pool open and affordable for decades to come.
Every unit generated on the roof is protected from future rises in grid prices.