March 23, 2017 10.34 am This story is over 84 months old

‘A shining example’: Lincoln village school wins energy-saving project award

A Lincoln village school has won a regional award for its energy-saving project with Lincolnshire County Council. William Farr CofE Comprehensive School in Welton, the council and renewable energy hub Greenio jointly won the Large Scale Project of the Year at East Midlands Efficiency Awards, held in Nottingham on Thursday, March 16. The school has been working…
From left to right: Steve Golightly (senior sustainability officer, LCC), Andrew Stones (Head of William Farr School), Adam Warner (Student, WFS), Ben Carling (Student, WFS), Anna Wooster (Greenio), Harry Swindin (Student, WFS), Nick Muir (head of year WFS), Madeleine Teasdale (Greenio), Paul Wooster (Greenio).

A Lincoln village school has won a regional award for its energy-saving project with Lincolnshire County Council.

William Farr CofE Comprehensive School in Welton, the council and renewable energy hub Greenio jointly won the Large Scale Project of the Year at East Midlands Efficiency Awards, held in Nottingham on Thursday, March 16.

The school has been working with the council’s sustainability team for four years, putting in place energy-saving measures expected to make savings of £180,000 each year – making the school one of the greenest in the county.

Previous energy-saving projects at the school have included fitting intelligent control systems to boilers to ensure they run more efficiently, while more than 200 insulation jackets have been fitted to pipework in 11 boiler rooms.

All the school’s internal and external lighting has also been replaced with LED lighting, and 150 kWp of Solar PV panels have been installed.

Together these measures have led to the school cutting its carbon emissions by 60%, saving £180,000 and 380 tonnes of CO2 each year.

The project will now progress to the National Energy Efficiency Awards to be held in Birmingham in September 2017.

Steve Golightly, senior sustainability officer at Lincolnshire County Council, said: “William Farr is a shining example of what can be achieved when a school really commits itself to saving energy.

“It is now one of the most energy efficient schools in the East Midlands, and shows huge savings can be made when they have the vision to put these measures in place.

“All three partners in the project were delighted to receive this award, together with pupils who have been involved at every stage.

“It was presented for the latest stage of the project, which involved replacing all the school’s gas boilers with five biomass boilers and a ground source heat pump system.

“The biomass boilers, installed by Greenio, burn wood pellets and are energy efficient and environmentally friendly.

“The school gets paid for the energy it’s producing, and is expected to be paid £2 million over the next 20 years – a great boost to their finances when all schools are facing pressures on their budgets.”