A school in Lincolnshire is to become a carbon neutral school later this month with the help of a £900,000 investment in renewables.
William Farr Comprehensive in Lincoln is to use the finance to install five biomass boilers and ground source heat pumps which will complement an existing 150kW solar array, LED lighting and energy control measures already installed at the school.
The measures will help the school become carbon neutral from 12 January.
The new scheme is expected to achieve a payback period of just six years and continue to generate annual cost savings of up to £120,000 for a further 14 years after that.
Renewables company Greenio is to install the heating systems which will be housed within bespoke cabins featuring automated feed systems.
Work has already started and is expected to be completed within 16 weeks.
The school is expected to save more than 300 tonnes of CO2 each year through its initiatives, which headteacher Andy Stones said was the culmination of a three-year drive to “create a truly green school”.
“It is something the students here, who have been involved in the process from the beginning, are really passionate about and it makes good financial sense.
“These projects are helping to secure the school’s future by bringing down out costs and generating valuable income for the future,” he added.
The project has been launched in collaboration with Lincolnshire County Council’s sustainability team, which provided support and advice for both the systems and their financing under its School’s Collaboration on Resource Efficiency (SCoRE) scheme.
SCoRE is available to all schools in Lincolnshire for free and Steve Golightly, senior sustainability and climate change officer at the council, labelled William Farr Comprehensive a “real trailblazer”.
“The school has made impressive strides in creating a truly eco school and is now one of the greenest in the region, if not the UK. It’s fantastic from an environmental perspective but it’s making sound financial sense too,” he said, adding that he hoped further schools would follow William Farr’s lead.
