The answer is in four parts: our children’s future, legislation, saving money, and getting a competitive advantage!

Excessive carbon in the atmosphere is causing climate change. We’re already experiencing the effects but with each passing decade they will become more severe. It’s the children in our schools who will grow up to face the brunt of the onslaught.

The government has already begun the process of legislating to phase out the use of the worst fossil fuels, namely coal and oil. Mains gas will inevitably follow. That process will take time, given the scale of the task and infrastructure implications: but it will happen. Increasingly, new builds will be required to meet exacting standards of energy efficiency and retrospective action will be required to convert school estates to alternative low-carbon systems.

Operating costs can be reduced by making the school buildings more energy efficient and converting to low-carbon energy systems. However, low-carbon systems are expensive to install and this can be a barrier for some schools. As you will see below, the government offers significant financial incentives for certain types of projects, making the effort required to become a zero-carbon school more affordable. Furthermore, every school can do a lot to reduce energy usage without spending much money, such as running a campaign to get staff and students to become more energy-aware and stop being wasteful.

Competition between schools is intense and parents and children will increasingly want to know what each school is doing to reduce carbon. A school’s carbon status and intent will soon become a marketing issue!

You are more likely to achieve zero-carbon status affordably if you are:

• aware of what needs to be done;
• aware of what practical and financial support is available outside the school;
• and you have a plan which is known and understood throughout the school.

In short, you need a decarbonisation plan that covers energy efficiencies and conversion to low-carbon systems across the three major energy usage categories in the school: power, heat and transport. This will save money, reduce your carbon footprint and increase the resilience of your estate. But what sort of work does this mean? Here are some examples:

Power:

• Install solar panels on any sites with high power consumption.
• Any significant source of flowing water on your estate could be used to generate power.
• If you have spare land which can’t be used for sports pitches or new builds, this might be suitable for ‘grid-balancing’ to generate a new revenue stream.

Heating:

• Convert your fossil fuel heating plant to low-carbon alternatives.
• Install heat pumps in all new builds and refurbishments.
• Any significant sources of water on your school site – lakes or rivers – could be used to generate heat.

Transport:

• Transport fleets will need to become zero-carbon, which means using electric vehicles and installing charging points.

There are currently 7 ways (listed below) to finance a project. ReEnergise can advise you on the options and support you in securing finance. It depends to some extent whether your school is in the public or independent sector; but there are options for both sectors.

1. Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) – This is a subsidy not a grant. That means that the school needs to find the capital outlay for a conversion project but is reimbursed over 20 years for all the low-carbon heat generated. The RHI is very generous but is closing at the end of March this year for new applications for projects.
2. Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) –This is a grant scheme, administered by Salix, (who manage grants and loans for the public sector). The initial budget is £1Bn, with further funds already promised for the near future in the government’s 10-Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution published in November 2020. Salix has strict technical and business case criteria for the projected performance of each type of energy technology.
3. Salix grant – Salix runs regular grant funding rounds each year. The grants are awarded on a competitive basis nationally and regionally to schools and colleges.
4. Salix interest-free loans – Offered as an alternative to a grant, with terms which are relatively inflexible compared to a bank loan. Any project seeking a Salix loan will be subject to similar technical and cost-effectiveness checks as for a grant. Loan terms are usually fixed at 8 years.
5. Local authority grant – These can be used alongside the options above, as long as the project accounting shows clearly the different tasks that each source of money supports. The general idea is that a school should not receive government money twice to finance the same task.
6. Bank loan – Bank loans can be used to finance projects. However, a school’s eligibility to use a bank loan does depend on the type of school.
7. Energy purchase agreement (EPA) – The concept of an EPA is that a 3rd- party pays for and owns the installation and then sells the energy generated back to the school at a price which is low enough to be attractive to the school but high enough to cover the provider’s own costs and generate a return on investment. This won’t achieve the same financial savings as some of the other options but is a way to get projects done that might otherwise be unaffordable. The provider takes most of the risks, unlike in the other finance options.

If you agree that something needs to change and want to know more, please contact us. We offer a step-by-step approach to the decarbonisation of school and college estates that is intended to reduce the risks as far as possible, and avoid clients wasting money on dead ends or expensive mistakes. It starts with a free, no-obligation assessment of your estate.