School's £20k grant for solar panels (From Wiltshire Times)

School's £20k grant for solar panels

2:00pm Monday 2nd March 2009 in

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SOLAR panels will be installed at a primary school in Trowbridge after it received a £20,000 grant from the Co-operative.

Paxcroft Primary School in Ashton Street, is one of 80 schools in the UK to receive the money in the second phase of the Co-operative’s Green Energy for Schools scheme, which is match-funded by the Government.

The Co-operative spent £1m installing solar panels at more than 100 UK schools last year and is investing a further £1m this year.

Solar energy company Solarcentury will install the panels, which will generate renewable energy, reducing the school’s reliance on fossil fuels.

Headteacher Liz Bannister said: “It is fantastic to be among the schools chosen to receive free solar panels.

“Schools have a vital role to play in educating the next generation about climate change and using this renewable energy technology to power our own premises will help us to bring that message home to pupils, parents and staff.”

Lee Dalton, manager of the Co-operative store in Seymour Road, said: “As a community retailer with a strong environmental record, it is great that we are now helping Paxcroft Primary to become a greener school.

“As well as cutting carbon dioxide emissions and saving school money on electricity bills, the solar panels will serve as a reminder to the whole community of the urgent need to do what we can to tackle climate change.”

The Co-operative group has set a target of generating 15 per cent of its total energy from renewable sources by 2012 and opened its first windfarm in Coldham, Cambridgeshire, in 2006.