Work by Denbighshire County Council’s Energy team has helped lead the charge towards a renewable energy generation landmark.
The team has been working on a number of projects to help improve building energy efficiency and also support the reduction of carbon emissions and usage costs over the longer term.
This work is part of the Council’s drive address the climate and nature emergency declared in 2019 and reduce its own carbon footprint.
Projects carried out on Council owned buildings has seen the Energy Team reach a landmark of over a megawatt of installed renewable energy capacity (1099kWp). Most of this is generated from roof mounted solar PV panels.
This installed capacity will provide around 1.05MWh per year (1,056,431kW). An average household uses 2900kWh of electricity per year, which means the achievement by the Energy Team is the equivalent of providing zero carbon electricity to run the entirety of 364 homes.
This will also reduce carbon emissions by 306 tonnes per year.
This renewable energy generation capacity is installed on schools, leisure facilities, council buildings and depots. Each Kilowatt used saves around 30 pence.
The capacity not only reduces substantial carbon it also reduces strain on the grid infrastructure as well as reduces costs for the council by lowering fuel bills and generally repaying the investment cost in between five to seven years.
Denbighshire County Council’s Energy Team are also installing heatpumps in Council owned buildings which can turn one kilowatt of electricity into three kilowatts of heat, fitting LED lighting which reduces load by at least 50 percent, adding insulation and improved efficiency windows and addressing energy related behaviour and building management control settings to save further carbon and utility costs.
Robert Jones said:
“We are really grateful to everyone we have worked with for helping us reach this all-important milestone for tackling the reduction of carbon emissions and improving energy efficiency across the Council’s building portfolio. This is a substantial amount of generated renewable energy we now have and further projects coming online will help us raise the bar as we head into 2024.
Cllr Barry Mellor, Lead Member for Environment and Transport, said:
“The Council is grateful to the work of the Energy Team for reaching this fantastic achievement. This work is vital for lowering our carbon footprint and supporting better energy efficiency and lower long term costs across our whole building estate. “
