01 August 2011
Caerphilly County Borough Council is making further strides in its commitment to sustainability and carbon footprint reduction… thanks to the sun!
A series of photovoltaic arrays, more commonly known as solar panels, are set to be installed to four council-owned buildings across the county borough, which in addition to helping reduce the council's carbon footprint, is also likely to generate revenue and savings of almost £1 million over a twenty-five year period.
The panels are set to be installed to Caerphilly County Borough Council's headquarters Penallta House, as well as Tredomen Business Centre or Gateway Building, Trinity Fields School in Ystrad Mynach and Ysgol Ifor Bach in Senghenydd.
Cllr Colin Mann, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member responsible for Sustainability said, "We really are leading the way across Wales in ensuring sustainable, energy efficient buildings across Caerphilly county borough as has been illustrated by Greenhill Primary School being the only A+ energy rated school in the country".
He continued, "We are now going one step further with the introduction of these brand new photovoltaic arrays, which in addition to reducing our carbon footprint by 53 tonnes a year, will also help generate a substantial annual revenue in excess of £31,000 a year".
"Our commitment to sustainability and carbon reduction remains steadfast, and it is exciting schemes such as this which really are of the utmost benefit in our quest to reduce our carbon footprint".
The £31,200 annual revenue will be generated through a Feed In Tariff (FIT) payment of 32.9p per kW (kilowatt) of energy generated by photovoltaic arrays under 50kW in size.
Any surplus electricity generated can also be sold to the grid for around 3p per unit.
In addition to this, a large array has been installed to the brand new Greenhill Primary School in Gelligaer – the projected FIT revenue to be generated from this is £16,000 a year, totalling £47,200 a year for all the projects.
The council's building energy costs will also reduce by a total of £6,575 a year, and Carbon Reduction Commitment payments will also reduce by £622 per year.
Over a 25-year period, a combination of revenue generated and savings made as a result of these arrays will total an estimated £962,340.
The installation of these photovoltaic arrays will be subject to a detailed survey and planning approval.
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