BANGOR University has announced that 100% of its electricity is now supplied from guaranteed renewable sources.
The switch to renewable energy is part of the university’s Sustainable University programme.
Professor Oliver Turnbull, Deputy Vice Chancellor and Chair of the University’s Sustainability Strategy Group, said: “This is fantastic news. Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do at Bangor, and this change further cements our commitment to being a truly sustainable university.
“Addressing climate change is an issue of enormous importance, and we all have a responsibility to act to reduce the environmental damage that our actions can cause.
“This announcement is just the most recent step that Bangor University is taking to address the Climate Emergency we declared earlier in 2019. Indeed, we will continue to work on measures to further reduce our environmental impact in the future.”
The University has been working hard to reduce its energy use for more than 15 years and the overall electricity use per m2 floor area has fallen by nearly 16% since 2005.
During the 2018/19 academic year, Bangor University managed a further 7% reduction on the previous year’s energy consumption, using around 16.5 GWh of electricity.
Switching to a wholly renewable electricity supply will contribute to reducing the University’s carbon footprint by as much as 4500 tonnes CO2e per year.
This change follows on from an investment of more than £2.5 million in energy efficiency at the University over the past 18 months.
Investments have included installing new solar panels on four buildings with a further 150 panels to be installed onto Main Arts Library before the end of the year; new heating controls in 26 Halls of Residence blocks on the Ffriddoedd site; extensive lighting upgrades; pipe insulation and improvements to settings and controls on boilers.
In total, the upgrade programme is projected to reduce the University’s energy consumption by more than 4 GWh per year, preventing more than 1100 tonnes of carbon emissions (CO2e).
