£7.45m spent on making public buildings more energy efficient

A £7.45 million scheme to make Salford’s public buildings more energy efficient has been completed. The scheme, in which the council received funding through public body Salix Finance via the government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, has delivered improvements to 30 public buildings across the city, saving 2,498,663 kwh of energy and 584 tonnes of carbon.

Since 2020, some 2,562 solar panels have been fitted to 21 public buildings, introducing air source heat pump systems to replace previous heating systems on 12 sites. Battery energy storage systems have been placed at four sites which will store excess energy from the solar panels and charge electricity from the grid during cheaper off-peak periods at night to then redistribute this during the day, cutting our energy bills.

Council bosses say the energy that the programme has saved would enable an electric car to go around the world 301 times. It would also power 277,629 houses – more than double the size of Salford – for a day.

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The carbon saved is the equivalent of the council planting a further 29,200 trees in the city. Solar panels will generate an output of 778,130 kwh of clean energy every year which will be tripled following the construction of our 5,000-panelled solar farm in Little Hulton.

Councillor Mike McCusker, lead member for planning, transport and sustainable development, said: “We are 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