Published Wednesday 10 March 2021 at 13:03
Blackburn with Darwen Council have secured £2.25m of funding – which is expected to help them save 290 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.
These energy savings will reduce emissions from the Council’s estate by around 5% – and reduce energy bills by around £200,000 a year.
The Council has been awarded the capital grant from the Government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme to implement energy efficiency and renewable energy schemes in the Council’s estate.
Locations set to benefit from the energy-efficient updates include Blackburn Enterprise Centre; Blackburn Leisure Centre; Darwen Leisure Centre; Witton Park Sports Arena; Blackburn Market; Darwen Market; Blackburn Central Library; Blackburn Technology Management Centre; Eanam Wharf Business Development; and the Data Centre.
Each of the 10 locations will replace obsolete equipment and upgrade end of life units to more efficient technology, costing £174,160.
Almost £740,000 of the capital grant will be spent updating the lighting at the majority of the sites – by replacing fluorescent lights with LEDs, and Blackburn Technology Management Centre and Eanam Wharf Business Development Centre will also invest over £792,000 replacing 30-year-old storage heaters with heat pumps.
The upgrades will be carried out as part of their capital programme for 2021/22 and will contribute to the Council’s Climate Emergency Declaration to be carbon neutral by 2030.
The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme is a capital grant to help public sector organisations to decarbonise their estate, in particular to decarbonise heat generation.
The Council has commissioned Capita to project manage the technical aspects of programme delivery, and work is expected to be completed by September 2021.
Councillor Vicky McGurk, Executive Member for Finance and Governance at Blackburn with Darwen Council, said:
We are delighted to have secured the capital grant to enable us to carry out this environmental work, in line with our climate emergency strategy.
Blackburn with Darwen Council is dedicated to reducing its carbon footprint across our estates and setting an example across the Borough’s buildings. This funding will allow us to make great strides towards reducing our carbon emissions.