Solar milestone reached

Over one million kilowatt hours (kWh) of solar energy have been generated by Essex County Council (ECC), marking a major milestone in its journey to reach the goal of becoming net zero by 2050. To date, ECC has installed solar PV arrays on over 50 buildings, comprised of schools and core sites. Combined, these installs have just passed a notable milestone having generated over one million kWh of electricity. This has prevented over 286 tonnes of CO2 emissions from being released into the atmosphere - the equivalent of planting over 13,000 trees. This represents substantial progress towards the goals recommended by the Essex Climate Action Commission in its report, ‘Net Zero: Making Essex Carbon Neutral’ by increasing green infrastructure and low carbon growth. So far in 2022, the schools with solar installs have benefitted from a combined income and savings of over £60,000. These savings will only continue to climb as the school’s energy prices are set to increase by 30% or more from October. In addition to financial and environmental benefits, schools have been able to positively engage children and the local community with their new installations, using them as catalysts for learning and motivation to save even more energy. Cllr Peter Schwier, ECC Climate Czar, said: “This milestone is a perfect example to show how through our Climate Action Plan we are successfully working towards achieving our ambitious goals. “As outlined in the Climate Action Plan, the Council is committed to playing its part by getting its own electricity from renewable sources, by producing over one million kWh of solar energy we have proved that we are well on our way to achieving that.” To achieve the milestone ECC has benefitted from the Government mobilising billions of pounds of funding to support the growth of 300,000 green jobs and reach net zero emissions by 2050. The Low Carbon Skills Fund and the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme were made available to public sector buildings via Salix. Funded by Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department for Education, Salix enables the public sector to apply for funding to reduce energy costs. ECC received just under £10 million of funding from Salix. ECC has made several successful joint applications to Salix. These have resulted in the creation of heat decarbonisation plans, collections of multiple solar panels or ‘arrays’, double glazed windows and whole-building heat decarbonisation for sites. The funding has accelerated the speed by which the County Council has been able to implement renewable and low-carbon technologies throughout its estate.