The UK’s biggest environmentally-friendly district heating system was fired up for the first time at the end of last month.
The £500,000 energy efficient wood chip heating system was installed by Scottish company Torren Energy Ltd in Atlantic College, a leading international college which is based in a castle on the Welsh coast.
The project was developed by EGNI (Wales) Ltd, which will take over the fuel supply and maintenance after commissioning and was pioneered by the college’s environmentally-focused students. It was also backed by the Welsh Development Agency with a contribution of £50,000.
The system is designed to heat areas of the castle and student accommodation and should save the college up to £30,000 a year in fuel costs.
“Atlantic College is the perfect example of how clean, renewable energy is proven to be economically viable,” said Stephen Lamb, Torren’s engineering director. “This is the biggest wood chip district heating system yet in the UK and it’s great to see the links between Celtic nations making UK history.”
The carbon dioxide reducing biomass system, using only woodchip from sustainable sources, will become fully functional in October 2005.
