Biomass heat plan to aid rural Shropshire schools

Rural schools in Shropshire will save money on their heating bills by switching from costly oil and gas supplies to boilers fuelled on pellets made from sawdust, councillors have been told.

Shropshire Council is spending about £2.6 million to give up to 37 primary schools in the county high-tech biomass boilers, which burn the pellets – a renewable fuel taken from Britain's sawmills.

The council will borrow the money to pay for the boilers and repay it over 20 years through government subsidies.

Rachel Striven, council sustainability officer, said the project would pay for itself.

The move will also help the council to meet green targets of cutting carbon dioxide by 35 per cent over the next two years.

Work is under way to install the first boiler at Cleobury Mortimer Primary School, and the remainder should be in place by October.

The authority estimates it will save £72,000 in the first year through lower fuel costs and efficiency savings.

The scheme was discussed last night at a meeting of Shropshire Council's protecting and enhancing our environment scrutiny committee.

The new boilers will sit alongside the schools' current heating system, with the old oil-burning heating system remaining in place as a back-up.

Councillor Trevor Davies was concerned that if more buildings were converted it would be harder to get supplies.

He was worried that if schools had to import pellets it would undo any environmental benefits.

But Ms Striven said not all buildings in the county would be converted, and schools with electric heating or mains gas would remain that way.

She added that the pellets were not being made in Shropshire, but she thought this would change as more buildings adopted pellet heating systems and a larger market emerged.