The National Trust is to invest £30million in renewable energy schemes at dozens of its properties as part of efforts to cut carbon and fuel bills.
More than 40 projects will be rolled out at some of the hundreds of castles, stately homes and countryside properties the Trust looks after, including a heating project using a lake, a hydro power scheme with historic links and biomass boilers to cut oil use.
The move comes after a £3.5million pilot, launched with renewable energy company Good Energy in 2013, which saw five schemes installed, including a biomass boiler at the Italianate Ickworth estate in Suffolk that was formally switched on today.
Ickworth’s biomass boiler has replaced a 5,000 litre oil tank, removing the risk of oil leaks, and the use of wood fuel from the estate itself has led to new woodland being planted which reinstates lost design features from the Grade II listed park and gardens.
The new investment, the largest the National Trust has ever made in renewables, aims to help the charity meet targets to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, cut energy use by 20% and source half its energy from renewables on its land by 2020.
The trust also hopes its renewable energy programme could save up to £4million on its energy costs each year.
Electricity generated from some of the projects can be sold back to the grid to provide an income which, along with savings, can be used to boost conservation work.
Some of the schemes could also provide a “hedge” against bad weather, which reduces visitor numbers and income, as heavy rainfall increases electricity generated from water turbines which the charity can use and sell.
Among the first projects to go ahead as part of the multi-million pound refit include a lake source heating project at Blickling Estate in Norfolk, which will use pipes run into the lake on the estate to extract heat from the water to warm the house.
It will remove two oil tanks and and more than 25,000 litres of oil consumption by providing an alternative to oil heating, cutting 68 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year, and will be operational at the mansion from the autumn.