25.07.17
Council yields £70,000 savings by installing solar power on buildings
A council has today announced that it found savings of £70,000 through the installation of solar powers on its public buildings and offices.
Herefordshire Council installed the eco-friendly technology on 15 of its buildings over the last three years, and has found that since then, the panels have generated 370,000kWh of green electricity.
Due to the positive savings and ecological benefit, the authority is looking to install more panels on some of its buildings to increase energy savings and continue reducing carbon emissions.
“Solar panels allow us to generate electricity from the sun,” said Cllr Harry Bramer, cabinet member for contracts and assets. “The electricity is entirely sustainable and even better, the government supports renewable energy by paying anyone who generates renewable electricity via feed in tariffs!
“Not only do we receive these tariffs for generating the electricity, but it also means we need to buy less electricity from the national grid so we save money there too!”
As well as use solar panels, Herefordshire is also working to reduce emissions using its carbon management plan. In the strategy, various initiatives that are aimed at successfully reducing carbon emissions are outlined.
During 2015-16, the plan led to a 29.4% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions against the baseline measurement in 2008-09. The authority is targeting a 40% reduction in emissions by 2020.
Herefordshire’s environmental drive also follows Leeds City Council backing plans to introduce a “district heating network” that was both low cost and environmentally-friendly.
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