School’s bid to save £1m

A Blackburn school is seeking prior approval for a large upgrade to one of its buildings, with a bid to slash costs by fixing the roof while the sun is shining.

Pleckgate High School is planning to install an impressive array of 289 solar panels on site, potentially slashing its energy bill and avoiding 53 tonnes (check) of carbon dioxide.

Students are unlikely to even spot the major investment in green infrastructure, which has an estimated cost of around £111,000, as the school wants to install the 577sqm of photovoltaic panels on top of its sports hall.

“The system has been designed and specified by Green Tech Hub to improve the school’s energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, and support the school’s wider sustainability objectives,” Pleckgate High explains in its submission to Blackburn with Darwen Council.

It continues: “The panels will be fixed to the existing roof structure using a non-intrusive mounting system, with all works undertaken in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations and relevant health and safety requirements.

“The installation will have minimal visual impact and no change to the existing use of the building.”

There will also be no students staring out windows at this vast array of solar panels, as the sports hall is by far the tallest building in the Outstanding-rated school’s grounds.

Indeed, the school’s application for prior approval shows the impact that high energy costs are having on homes, businesses and even education institutions across Lancashire, with all seeing their bills balloon in recent years after the wars in Ukraine and Iran.

But in turn, this has made investing in cost-cutting measures like solar panels increasingly attractive, with Pleckgate’s solar project slashing its energy bill by a sixth per annum, for the next 25 years.

This equates to savings of around £33,000 every year, according to modelling shared in the application. This means that the system could pay for itself before next term’s Year 7s sit their GCSEs.

And so long as it has been a sunny year, the installation specialists from Green Tech Hub believe that this array on the sports hall roof will be able to produce around 112,000 kilowatt-hours of energy per annum, of the school’s total 635,000kWh energy usage.

Their modelling estimates that by the 25th year after its installation, this solar array will have saved the school an impressive £1,000,000, at the current rate of energy bill increases.