Friday 6 March 2020

Northfleet School for Girls saves nearly £40k with clean energy upgrades

Northfleet School for Girls in Gravesend has saved around £38,585 on gas and electricity bills between 2018 and 2019 through a series of clean energy upgrades.

In 2018, the school installed one of the country's largest commercial solar arrays and upgraded its lighting to LEDs, with the support of Kent County Council.

If the school hadn’t installed the technologies, it predicts its bills would have risen to £120,000 per year.

With an outstanding 681 panels now installed, solar energy provides around 30% of the site's power, with around 8% more electricity exported to the grid.

The cost of the technologies was covered by government-funded organisation Salix Finance, in the form of an interest-free loan which will be repaid through the savings generated.

Kent County Council has suggested it is keen to repeat the scheme with "as many schools as possible" within the county.

Susan Carey, the Cabinet Member for Environment at Kent County Council, said: "Kent County Council has already helped over 100 schools reduce their energy bills and wants to help even more schools use renewable energy to become energy efficient.

"The Northfleet project shows just what can be achieved and I look forward to more such projects across Kent."