Rock electricity
As Madonna and friends gathered to highlight climate change at the Live Earth concert in July, it was inevitable that the un-ecological rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle would be highlighted. But it’s not just the world tours, with an army of support staff, and energy-burning light shows that are environmentally unfriendly, the whole sophisticated studio production process feeds off vast amounts of electricity.

So when Julia Craik, managing director of Premises Studios in London had an opportunity to create a self-sustainable solution, there could be no compromise on sound quality with a client list that has included Nina Simone, The Scissor Sisters and recent Mercury Music prizewinners The Klaxons.

Solar panels
‘We got in touch with various government agencies and a UK company called Chelsfield Solar,’ says Craik, ‘and they did an audit and estimated what the studio would use in a year, so we worked out that 18 solar panels would cover that usage.’

The technology involved is self-sustaining in many different ways. ‘Because it's so sound insulated it is also completely heat insulated, so even on a cold day we don't need to put any heating on.’ The solar panels are photovoltaic - light sensitive rather than sun sensitive.

Craik continues, ‘the panels are completely self-cleaning, they just sit on the roof. They feed into the national grid, so on a rainy day we might be taking from the national grid but on a sunny day we are pumping much more energy than we use through panels, and the rest goes back into the national grid.’ The music studio really does give back to the main energy supply, rather than sucking energy away in extravagantly long guitar solos!

No compromise
Craik and her colleagues have made an agenda-setting decision that is already having an impact on pop stars. ‘For some people, going green means they may have to compromise in some way. We've proved that not to be the case. We've built a completely high-tech studio. It's one of the best in Europe and it's also solar powered. The feedback has been incredible.’

And Craik believes the green choice is also the commercial choice, ‘if there's a choice between us and another studio, then artists are going to choose us because they feel they can make a difference here and not compromise their sound quality.’