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The National Trust, Europe’s largest conservation organisation, is to invest £30m in solar panels, woodchip boilers and innovative technology that can extract heat from a lake, to tackle the historic and energy inefficient nature of many of its properties, many of which are off the gas grid. The Trust aims to supply half of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2020.
This important investment in renewable energy sources is an eightfold increase on the £3.5m the trust has already invested in 5 pilot green projects.
“We have a responsibility to look after the special places in our care, requiring us to make long-term decisions that will protect them for future generations,” said Patrick Begg, the trust’s rural enterprises director. “In setting out our 10 year plan we recognised we will have to play our part in helping to mitigate climate change. A key part of that is to reduce our reliance on oil and look for greener energy solutions.”
It is envisaged that thanks to a combination of energy efficiency measures and renewable energy sources implemented at 40 sites, the Trust will reduce the energy usage by 20% and save 2,586 tonnes of CO2 a year.
As many of the National Trust properties are located in isolated areas often have no access to the national gas grid. The charity organisation plans to run two-thirds of the 40 projects on biomass, replacing the inefficient oil fired boilers and taking the advantage of the National Trust’s woodland.
Others will depend on solar, heat pumps and hydro.
Source: the Guardian