St James’s Market in Bradford is going ahead with plans to install solar panels after the installation quote was slashed from £200,000 to £120,000.
The market plans to install the solar panels that will generate electricity that can be sold back to the council.
But the idea looked set to be scrapped last November when the government announced it was almost halving the amount it paid for energy, meaning the investment would have taken between 15 and 18 years to pay off.
The new quote of £120,000 means the costs can be recovered in eight or nine years, so the market is going ahead and the panels will be installed by the end of April.
St James’s Market manager Colin Wolstenholme said the panels have been linked to the tenant that uses the most energy on the site, Delifresh.
“A legal agreement has been drawn up between them and the council that ensures that the savings will be returned to the council and shared between the tenants. That’s quite unique because it ensures that we can make it more cost effective,” he said.
The £120,000 is shared between the council and tenants. When the panels begin to make a return after eight or nine years the money will be shared between the council and tenants.
St James’s Market won Wholesale Market of the Year in the NABMA awards for the second year in a row last month for its waste management and efforts to reduce its carbon footprint.
It is planning to install a double header of energy efficiency savings by replacing all its external lighting with LED lights at the same time it installs the solar panels.
The LED lights will provide an 81 per cent saving in energy costs and have a predicted lifespan of 14 years.
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