The Nottinghamshire Woodheat Project commenced in 2003, and is part of the group of projects that aim to reduce the Council’s emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂).

To date the Council has installed biomass heating at 62 sites around the County, a vast majority of which are schools. The boilers consume some 2,500 tonnes of wood pellets per year and save nearly 6,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year. In addition to the environmental benefit there is also an educational benefit, as young people have the chance to have first hand experience of sustainable energy in practice.

The project targeted old coal and oil boilers that were coming to the end of their useful lives. Due to their age, and the nature of the fuel they were using, these were the worst offending, in terms of CO₂ emissions, boilers in the County. Initial pilot projects were undertaken to test the feasibility of using new biomass boilers, converting coal boilers to run on biomass, using wood chip and using wood pellet.

Consultations were also undertaken with local coal boiler manufacturers to establish if they could develop a biomass alternative. Various sources of biomass, and different delivery and storage systems were also explored. Once some basic rules and models, and a supply of high quality wood pellets was established the programme was rolled out across the County.

The Woodheat Project piggy-backed on the Council’s Boiler Replacement Programme, which is part of its planned maintenance work. The Boiler Replacement Programme annually established the capital necessary to replace older boilers with a fossil fuel, mostly gas, equivalent. Through training and awareness raising amongst senior managers and elected members it was agreed that, provided that there was no additional cost to the Council, the Boiler Replacement Programme would install biomass boilers, subject to a business case for each site and the site’s approval of the project.

Initially the Council obtained funding to offset the difference between the capital cost of biomass boilers and fossil fuel boilers through an innovative Public Service Agreement (PSA), the first ever to focus specifically on reducing CO₂ emissions. Subsequently the Council has been successful in every round of the Government’s BioEnergy Capital Grant Scheme.

Educational resources pack

To enhance the educational benefit of installing woodheat boilers in schools, the Council has developed an educational resources pack aimed at key stage 2 – 3 which is distributed freely to all schools with biomass boilers. If you would like to request copies of the educational resources pack for your school, please tel: 0115 977 4849, or email: energy.en@nottscc.gov.uk

Further information

If you would like any further information on this project, please contact the Energy Management Officers on tel: 0115 9774849 or e-mail: energy.en@nottscc.gov.uk