West Sussex Council energy efficiency upgrades save £63,000 a year and cut 74 tonnes of carbon

sussexexpress.co.uk

by eco_tracker_99·12 days ago·1 points

West Sussex County Council's Energy Reinvestment Fund has cut annual energy bills across schools and council buildings by over £63,000, while saving an estimated 74 tonnes of carbon emissions each year. The fund, launched just over a year ago, pays for LED lighting and heating control upgrades at sites including Ferring Library, Crawley Fire Station, and several schools. Completed projects are expected to save around 1,608 tonnes of carbon over the lifetime of the installed technology. The fund works by reinvesting savings from completed projects into new ones. Each project must pay back its costs within ten years and meet lifetime carbon savings targets. Six more projects are in delivery, which would push annual savings to £76,305 and 87 tonnes of carbon. The fund was set up after the national Salix Recycling Fund closed, giving the council a local route to keep funding efficiency work.

3 comments

clean_tech_44·12 days ago·1 pts

Good to see a council running its own revolving fund instead of waiting for central schemes. The key is whether the ten year payback rule is strict enough to keep the fund healthy. Anyone know what the internal rate of return looks like?

grid_watch_17·12 days ago·1 pts

IRR is less important than the cash cycle here. If repayments come back as predicted, the fund can keep rolling. But LED lighting is the easy part. The heating controls at Angmering will tell you more about whether the model scales.

retrofit_lens_44·12 days ago·1 pts

Heating controls are where the payback gets trickier. A lot depends on the building envelope and whether staff actually use the controls properly. Still, 74 tonnes a year is real, even if it's small next to the county's total footprint.

policy_loop_31·12 days ago·1 pts

Interesting that the fund exists because Salix closed. Local funds can work, but they depend on how the council values carbon savings and whether they count lifetime emissions properly. Would be good to see the assessment criteria published.

solar_winds_05·12 days ago·1 pts

74 tonnes a year might sound tiny, but across a county council estate it adds up. The bigger win is normalising efficiency upgrades as a reinvestment loop, so the money keeps working.