Nearly £8m to Make Buildings Energy Efficient in Greater Manchester
A £7.45 million scheme to make Salford’s public buildings more energy efficient has been completed. Housing Industry Leaders explores how the scheme is helping build a greener future for Greater Manchester.
The scheme, in which Salford City Council received funding through public body Salix Finance via the UK Government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, has delivered improvements to 30 public buildings across the city. It has saved 2,498,663 kWh of energy and 584 tonnes of carbon, making the buildings more energy efficient.
Through The Scheme Energy Bills Will Be Cut
Since 2020, the scheme has delivered a range of measures, including fitting 2,562 solar panels on 21 public buildings, introducing air source heat pump systems to replace previous heating systems on 12 sites, and installing battery energy storage systems at four locations.
Storing excess energy from the solar panels and charge electricity from the grid during cheaper off-peak periods at night and then redistributing this during the day, the battery energy storage systems will cut people’s energy bills.
It is said by Salford City Council, that this energy saved would get you around 301 times in an electric car or be able to power a city of 277, 629 houses for a day, this would be over double the size of Salford.
We Need To Do More To Address The Climate Emergency
Lead member for planning, transport and sustainable development, Councillor Mike McCusker, said: “Salford City Council is delivering innovative solutions to make our public estate more sustainable as we work towards our goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2038.
“This scheme will significantly reduce the carbon footprint of a number of key buildings across the estate, including our leisure and sports facilities and children’s homes, which will now be sustainably heated and better equipped to help us build a greener Salford in the coming years.
“However, we know we must do more to address the climate emergency and in addition to our £126 million of investment in our green spaces and walking and cycling routes across the city, our state-of-the-art solar farm will help us turbocharge our ability to generate clean energy in our city.”
Greater Manchester Has Seen Energy Efficiency Upgrades To 200 Buildings
Other measures included in the programme include installing various energy-saving tools to our public estates such as LED lighting, insulation, radiator valves, double glazing, and metering.
The scheme was made possible after £78 million was secured by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and 15 other partners from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme. The funding was provided to Greater Manchester to support energy efficiency upgrades to 200 buildings across the city region.
