Rawdon school set to utilise solar power (From Wharfedale Observer)

Rawdon school set to utilise solar power

2:07pm Friday 1st May 2009

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Benton Park is set to go greener with the installation of £20,000 solar panels.

The Rawdon school is among 80 nationally selected to receive a grant in a £1m scheme run by The Co-operative.

The company has already spent £1m installing solar panels at more than 100 schools across the UK during the past year.

It is now investing a further £1m to install solar panels at 60 schools and to pilot three additional renewable technologies – wind turbines, biomass boilers and ground source heat pumps – at more than 20 schools.

Benton Park was nominated by Alison Bull, manager of The Co-operative Travel branch in Yeadon.

She said: “Installing solar panels at this local school is a great way of getting our climate change message across to the whole community.

“As well as reducing Benton Park’s carbon footprint and saving the school money on electricity bills, the solar panels will help to teach the pupils about green energy.”

Headteacher David Foley said: “We work hard to make Benton Park a green school with a range of initiatives and we are grateful to The Co-operative for boosting our efforts in this way. Schools have an important role to play in educating the next generation about climate change and using solar panels to generate our own renewable energy will help us inspire pupils, staff and parents about green issues.”

The photovoltaic panels are half funded through the Co-opeerative scheme with match funding from the Government’s low carbon building programme.

The panels will generate renewable electricity, reducing the school’s reliance on fossil fuels while highlighting the issue of climate chance.

A monitor screen in the school building will display how much energy the panels are generating and how much carbon dioxide they have saved to date.

Schools will also be able to access their energy data on the internet, along with education materials which teachers can download for use in the classroom.

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