Location: Cromarty, Highland
Technology: Solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and battery storage
CARES funding: £13,919 through the Community Buildings Fund
Background
Cromarty Cinema is a volunteer-run community cinema located in the small Highland town of Cromarty, which has a population of around 650-700 people.
The cinema grew out of grassroots community film screenings that began in the early 2000s, when local volunteers started showing films in village halls using a projector and portable equipment.
In 2007, these screenings evolved into the Cromarty Film Festival. The festival brought filmmakers and audiences together during the darkest time of the year and quickly became a popular community event.
As the festival grew, volunteers found themselves repeatedly setting up temporary cinema spaces in draughty halls across the town. This prompted the idea of creating a permanent cinema venue for the community.
Following a feasibility study and successful fundraising campaign, a purpose-built cinema was constructed in 2019-2020. The building seats 35 people and was designed to be simple, well insulated and energy efficient, with heating provided by an air source heat pump.
Today, the cinema screens between five and seven films a week and regularly operates at around two-thirds capacity, an impressive figure for a small rural venue.
Project aims
Although energy efficiency was built into the building from the outset, the Cromarty Cinema team wanted to further reduce the venue’s running costs.
As a volunteer-led organisation, keeping operational expenses low is essential to ensuring the cinema remains financially sustainable. Income from ticket sales is limited, with a large proportion going to film distributors through licensing fees.
When the opportunity to apply for funding through the CARES Community Buildings Fund arose, the team decided to install solar panels and battery storage to generate and store their own electricity.
The project aimed to:
- Reduce the cinema’s electricity costs
- Increase the building’s energy self-sufficiency
- Improve the long-term financial sustainability of the venue
The project involved installing 36 solar panels with a total capacity of 16.2kW, alongside a Tesla Powerwall battery system.
The CARES grant of £13,919 covered around 80 per cent of the installation costs, with the remaining funding coming from the cinema’s own reserves.
Outcomes
The solar PV and battery system was installed in early 2026 and is already helping the cinema significantly reduce its reliance on grid electricity.
Early monitoring suggests the building is now largely self-powered.
“We’re roughly 90-100 per cent self-powered and drawing very little from the grid,” says Fraser Mackenzie, one of the cinema’s trustees.
The system is expected to reduce electricity costs by several pounds per day, savings which will add up over the course of the year and help keep the cinema financially viable.
Once the system is fully connected for exporting electricity back to the grid, the cinema also hopes to generate a small additional income from surplus energy.
Reducing energy costs is particularly important for a small community venue like Cromarty Cinema, where volunteers work hard to keep ticket prices affordable and ensure the cinema remains accessible for local residents.
Lessons learned
For the Cromarty Cinema team, the project demonstrated how renewable energy can support the long-term sustainability of community buildings.
The CARES funding was crucial in making the installation financially viable, helping to shorten the payback period and allowing the project to go ahead.
The team also benefited from working with experienced local installers and support from Local Energy Scotland advisers throughout the process.
Weather conditions presented a small challenge during installation, as the cinema’s coastal location meant the team had to wait for a suitable window to safely install the rooftop panels.
Despite this, the project was completed successfully and is already delivering benefits.
Looking ahead, the team is exploring further improvements, including installing electric vehicle charging points in the cinema car park and potentially expanding battery storage in the future.