Denbighshire County Council’s Energy Team have completed a project to reduce energy use and lower long-term costs.

The team’s low carbon work at the council's Corporate Stores site at Lon Parcwr, Ruthin, has reduced energy consumption by nearly 75 per cent each month.

The team has been looking after multiple projects across various council buildings aiming to improve energy efficiency.

These projects are part of a long-term plan to decrease carbon emissions and reduce future costs.

This effort is a part of the council’s strategy, initiated in 2019, to tackle the climate and nature emergency and decrease its own building carbon footprint.

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As part of the energy-saving efforts, the Energy Team established a new LED lighting system which can help cut down building lighting electricity consumption by at least 50 per cent.

Adding to this, 11kW of PV solar panels were fitted on the building roof to harness the sun’s energy, reducing power usage from the National Grid.

Energy efficiency improvements to the heating controls were also carried out.

With this combined effort, energy use has seen a monthly reduction of up to 75 per cent during summer, leading to a monthly cost saving of £1109.

It is projected to save more than £11,000 per year with carbon emissions savings of over 11 tonnes annually.

Martyn Smith, property energy and carbon manager, said: "Corporate stores is a unique building for us to tackle as there are very few windows on the building which means virtually no natural light and lighting is a priority as it is the primary energy consumer.

"Using an LED system to address the need for regular lighting in the building, supported by the PV panels has helped us achieve this large reduction in energy use and also lower energy costs over the long term."

Alongside this, projects implemented on other council-owned buildings have allowed the Energy Team to pass an important milestone of over a megawatt of installed renewable energy capacity (1099kWp).

Cllr Barry Mellor, lead member for environment and transport, said: "We are committed to continuing to ensure that our carbon footprint is reduced across the county by looking at the buildings we own and initiating projects to help cut emissions and save energy costs in the long term.

"As well as our estate, we are also working on projects to support the reduction of carbon output from our fleet, private vehicles and also boosting biodiversity resilience across the county."