CAERPHILLY County Borough Council’s headquarters at Penallta House in Ystrad Mynach is set to become a sustainable hub generating even more of its own electricity in the future.

The council’s Cabinet has called for a report to be prepared which will explore options to install additional solar panels across the site – including a pilot scheme involving the innovative use of car park canopies to accommodate extra solar panels.

The report will also consider the installation of extra car charging points to help meet the rising demand for cleaner, greener electric vehicles.

Council leader Dave Pool, who is also responsible for the City Deal portfolio around Housing and Green Growth, said: “As a sustainable local authority we are working hard to minimise our carbon footprint and reduce annual energy costs.

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(Penallta House and an example of the proposed car park canopy)

“We already have a number of solar panels on Penallta House and across the wider Tredomen Business Park Campus, but we want to provide even more to help us become an energy neutral site.

“The proposed car park canopy panels would be an innovative development, and we hope that other businesses and organisations will follow our lead so that the many car parks across the county borough can also be utilised in this way.”

The buildings situated on the Tredomen campus (including the two main council offices and the business centres) consume 2.5 gigawatts of electricity each year.

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This costs the authority £340,000 and is equivalent to 785 tonnes of carbon.

There are currently 440 panels in place generating 61 megawatts of electricity per annum.

Sean Morgan, Deputy Leader of Council added: “We have an obligation to lead by example and it’s great to see that the steps being proposed by the council will make a positive difference to future generations.

“We would encourage everyone to join us in out efforts to become cleaner and greener and explore ways to help protect our fragile environment.

“These proposals set out our intent to use council buildings and assets in a sustainable way.

“We need to explore options for all our buildings and sites for potential opportunities to generate green energy in future.”

Caerphilly council is already taken steps to become more environmentally friendly, including reducing the amount of plastic it uses in its day to day operations.

A special ‘Plastics Challenge’ group has been established to look at how the council can reduce the use of problematic across the whole organisation.