Best Practice – The Premises, a Solar Powered Recording Studio

Studio A at The Premises, London, is a state of the art recording studio fully powered by electricity generated from photovoltaic (PV) panels, a renewable energy technology. When The Premises needed to move a few years ago into a new building, they took advantage of the building having a flat roof and being well orientated for
installing solar panels. The entire PV system cost £20,000 – half of which was funded by a standard government grant.

To determine how many PV panels were needed to meet the electricity demand of the studio The Premises did an energy audit of the amount of electricity used in a typical year in their previous studio. The PV system was designed so that, over the course of a year the amount of electricity generated by the panels is equal to the amount used by the studio. The panels are easy to maintain as they are self-cleaning. In addition to the PV system, the studio uses low-energy supplies for the SSL mixing desk and air-conditioning and the high level of sound insulation means that there is no need for a heating system, even in the middle of winter.

The Premises will re-coup the cost of the PV panels over a 10-year period, so it is not necessarily a viable solution for all small businesses (Friends of the Earth, 2007). However, with more artists wanting to record albums with environmental integrity there is likely to be a growing demand for recording studios using renewable
energy. (pers. comm. Julia Craik and Viv Broughton, 2008).