ENERGY
SCHOOLS ARE LEARNING TH SUSTAINABILITY – and saving t Something big is
stirring down in the woodshed….
something with the potential to transform the energy policy of your school, save a big slice of your energy costs and provide a hands-on resource for teaching
sustainability to pupils.
22 A PUBLIC SECTOR SUSTAINABILITY • VOLUME 3 ISSUE 3
growing number of schools across the South East are reducing their reliance on fossil fuels in favour of biomass renewable energy,
a more sustainable source of heating and power produced from woodchips or pellets.
The growth is thought to be fuelled, in part, by the Government’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), which was introduced last year to encourage the uptake of renewable heat technologies among communities and businesses. This scheme provides financial incentives to eligible, non-domestic renewable heat generators for the life of the installation or up to a maximum of 20 years. Mark Lebus, managing director of LC
Energy, one of the leading biomass providers, said: “As heat in schools must be available on-demand, particularly during cold spells such as the UK has experienced recently, locally sourced biomass has proved an excellent option – especially with the availability of the RHI.
We’ve seen a significant increase in the number of schools recognising the cost effectiveness of wood fuel energy, as well as the benefits it delivers in terms of reducing the carbon footprint and lessening the establishment’s reliance on fossil fuels.”
Cost savings using the wood biomass products are significant. A domestic home requiring 15,000kWhrs of heat per year, for example, would need to spend £2,250 if run on electricity; £945 a year if run on oil and £720 on mains gas. This compares to £675 per year for wood pellets and £530 for woodchips. Scale up the operation and savings can run into thousands of pounds per annum.
READY-MADE EDUCATIONAL TOOL Julie Davies, office manager, at
Marston Vale Middle School in Bedfordshire, says: “Our biomass system has proved a very cost effective alternative to our previous oil central heating system. Estimates suggest we’ve reduced our spending on heating by £15,000 a year.
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