Wrexham County Borough Council
01/10/2009
Wrexham County Borough Council's renewable energy feasibility study
In October 2006 Wrexham County Borough Council ran a seminar on 'Renewable Energy in Housing' for staff from both the Council and other organisations. As part of this seminar commercial firms provided input relating to three forms of renewable energy: GSHPs; wind turbines; and solar panels. Subsequent to this seminar Wrexham County Borough Council set up a working group with representatives from Housing and Public Protection and the NEWI. The aim of the group was to assess the feasibility of installing such renewable energy sources in council-owned homes.
The Council has undertaken site visits to assess the suitability of groups of houses for each of the three technologies, and the Council's energy efficiency officer has sought tenants' opinions regarding the relevant installations. The Council also proposes to identify three similar groups of properties which will be used as control groups. Prior to the installation ,NEWI will evaluate the tenants' utility bills for the previous 12 months in both the renewable energy and control groups.
Following the installation of renewable technologies, fuel bills for these homes will be monitored for 12 months alongside those of the control group. After this 12 month period, the Centre for the Built Environment at NEWI will carry out a socio economic study, examining such issues as installation costs, pay back periods, financial and emission savings and the tenants' opinions and experiences of using the different systems.
The number of installations, and therefore the number of properties needed for the control groups, is subject to available funding and grants awarded. The Council is currently seeking funding from both the DTI's Low Carbon Buildings Programmeand from utility companies under the second phase of the EEC Scheme.
Contact Name: Bill Jones
Contact Role Principal Energy Officer
Contact Telephone: 01978 297208
Contact Email: bill.jones@wrexham.gov.uk