21st November 2006

Woking's achievements could help Stroud

John Allbar, a Stroud District Green party member who organised a trip to Woking Borough Council to view their Green projects said: " Woking is the acknowledged leading local authority in the UK for reducing carbon emissions (i). We wanted to see at first hand what can be done. We hope that with the Environment Green paper, Stroud District Council will use the opportunity to learn from others like Woking."

Photos - Above: John Allbar in front of fuel cell box, Right: Woking carpark, Below: Sheltered housing.

John Allbar continued: "Woking have set up a joint venture energy services company and have found ways of  successfully reducing energy consumption without incurring extra costs to tax payers. The Council has reduced it's own energy consumption by 49% in 13 years and achieved a massive reduction of 77% in CO2 emissions." John Allbar said: "Woking had the UK's first fuel cell Combined Heat and Power system (see photo). Another example of their innovation is the off-grid lamps in a car park (see photo), with a payback time of 2.5 years. There is a battery under every column, each column with a 100 Wp wind turbine in the top, along with four solar panels (each at 85Wp). The battery will keep the lamp going for 3 to 5 days in the event of low ambient light or lack of wind, and this system has proven to work continuously. The higher capital cost is offset by the lack of need to connect to the National Grid. Woking is now considering these lamps for paths in more remote locations that would be expensive to connect to the grid."

Notes:

(i) http://www.woking.gov.uk/environment