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NEWS: £195,000 Awarded to Worcester City for Significant Impact
Worcester City Council received £195,000 from the UK government’s Swimming Pool Support Fund (SPSF) to install solar panels on the top of Perdiswell Leisure Centre.
The panels will be installed by March 2025, along with a device that will use excess summer power to heat water for showers, fans that will recirculate warm air to reduce heating demand, and an energy-efficient water recovery system to clean and reuse water.
The council also got a further £59,750 from the SPSF on behalf of Worcester Citizens’ Swimming Baths Association for solar panels and a building management system update for the swimming pool in Lower Wick, Worcester.
Lloyd Griffiths, the city council’s director of operations, homes, and communities, stated, “We are overjoyed to have been awarded these much-needed funds, which will help drive down the consumption of energy at Perdiswell Leisure Centre after a period of extremely difficult energy bill increases.”
“That, combined with the positive environmental effects of these new technologies, will ensure the future of one of Worcester’s largest leisure facilities.” Rob Tyler, area manager at Freedom Leisure, which operates Perdiswell Leisure Centre for the benefit of the council, stated, “Supporting people and communities to be healthier and more active is at the heart of every single thing we do, and we are thrilled that we will be able to do so while reducing our carbon emissions.”
The Perdiswell facilities is not the only facility to win major financing from the SPSF. West Lindsey District Council was awarded £401,500 to install hundreds of solar panels at its leisure facilities.
The West Lindsey Leisure Centre, in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, received funds from the government’s Swimming Pool Support Fund in its second phase, and this aims at rendering buildings more energy efficient.
The funds will be utilized to install 545 solar photovoltaic (PV) modules on the swimming pool roof, saving 221 MWh in annual energy production.
The upgrades also included upgrading to more energy-efficient equipment such as LED lighting, variable speed drives, water-saving devices, and lighting sensors, as well as minimizing energy waste by installing pool covers.
Furthermore, despite the fact that it is not a government-funded project, Tonbridge Swimming Pool in Kent has begun installing an 80kWp rooftop solar array to provide the building with low-cost renewable energy.
Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council’s latest emissions assessment revealed that the leisure complex produces more than half of the council’s total greenhouse gasses.
