Bath & North East Somerset Council has received £173,166 in UK government funding to install solar energy on top of the Bath Sports & Leisure Centre.
The council has applied for this funding from Phase II (Capital) of the government’s Swimming Pool Support Fund (SPSF), which funds capital investments to improve the energy efficiency of public facilities with swimming pools.
A photovoltaic (PV) system of up to 212 kWp will be installed on the central roof of the leisure center, subject to approval by a roof survey.
An estimated 124 kWp is required to supply the electricity required for the pools, with the additional array potentially able to provide electricity for future air source pumps that could be installed as part of a long-term decarbonisation plan for the building.
Sport England manages the Swimming Pool Support Fund, and £20 million in lottery funding was also made available to supplement the government’s £40 million SPSF capital fund.
More than 700 facilities applied for funding, with a total funding request of four times the available amount.
Councilor Oli Henman, Cabinet Project Lead for Climate Emergency and Sustainability, said: “We are delighted to have received this funding, which will help us take the next step forward in our ambition to decarbonise our council buildings and generate renewable energy .
“It will reduce the building’s energy consumption and carbon emissions, helping us achieve our Net Zero target by 2030 and achieve our targets of a minimum of 300 MW of district-wide renewable energy generation capacity and 12 MW of installed capacity on the business premises. ”
SPSF’s winning projects
Thanks to this specific fund, several municipalities have received financial support to install PV modules in their local swimming pools and recreation centers.
For example, Worcester City Council received £195,000 from the UK government’s SPSF to add solar panels to the roof of the Perdiswell Leisure Centre.
The panels will be installed by March 2025 alongside a unit that will use the excess energy produced during the summer months to heat water for showers, fans that will recirculate warm air to reduce heating demand, and an energy efficient water recovery system that reuses and reuses water.
The council also received a further £59,750 from the SPSF on behalf of the Worcester Citizens’ Swimming Baths Association for solar panels and a building management system upgrade for the swimming pool at Lower Wick in Worcester.
In addition, West Lindsey District Council in Lincolnshire announced that the government has allocated £401,500 to install hundreds of solar panels at its leisure centre. The funding will be used to install 545 photovoltaic (PV) solar panels on the roof of the pool, saving 221 MWh of annual energy production.
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