Barrow 1618 Primary School has become Shropshire’s first carbon neutral school thanks to the work of Cheshire-based Green Electrician Group.  

After recently moving from state school status to an independent free school, the Governors approached The Green Electrician to help reduce the school’s energy spend as well as its overall environmental footprint.

The Green Electrician set up an intensive Green Energy management programme for the school after a detailed assessment of the school’s current energy use. First up, the company negotiated a cheaper two-year electricity supply contract and overhauled the school’s lighting with energy efficient bulbs and replaced the radiators to ones with higher efficiency. The green company rounded it out with an energy monitoring system that will allow the school to stay on top of its energy bills.

However, just saving energy was not enough to realise the school’s ambitious carbon aspirations so the Green Electrician also installed equipment to help the school actually generate its own electricity. A solar PV array combined with a biomass system will help the school become its own power plant – generating energy as well as cash.

Not only will the work undertaken slash an annual 12 tonnes of CO2 off the school’s carbon footprint but the combined income from the feed-in tariff and renewable heat incentive will provide Barrow 1618 Primary School with an income for the next 20 years. The Green Electrician estimates that the school will receive around £900 a year for the first five years whilst the finance is repaid and then, for the following fifteen years, at least £5,400 every year.

David Young OBE, Operations Director at the Green Electrician, commented: “We are very proud to have helped Barrow School with its goal to become carbon neutral. The detailed monitoring, display and reporting that come as part of the package will undoubtedly make energy consumption an important aspect of school life as it seeks to influence behaviours and continually reduce carbon emissions.”

Selina Graham, the Chair of Governors for Barrow 1618, concluded that: “Within an incredibly tight timetable the team from the Green Electrician has worked with the utmost professionalism and efficiency, from the consultation stage through to completion, to help us achieve our goal of carbon neutrality.  We look forward to continuing to work with the company in the future and to all the environmental and financial benefits they have brought us.”