Museum goes green
St John’s Museum in Warwick is soon to become one of Warwickshire County Council’s greenest buildings when it comes to heating.
The museum is to have a new wood burning ‘biomass boiler’ that could soon be completely self-sufficient on wood sourced naturally through coppicing at the County Council’s own country parks.
The new ‘carbon neutral’ heating system is currently being installed thanks to the ‘Climate Change Fund’ set up to help Warwickshire County Council tackle greenhouse gas emissions from its buildings. The scheme will save 35 tonnes a year of greenhouse gas emissions – equivalent to that generated by heating a primary school for a year.
As trees grow, they absorb carbon dioxide from the air and turn it into wood, if the wood is then burnt the carbon is released, but the process is called ‘carbon neutral’ because there is no net gain in CO2 to the atmosphere. If the heat produced from burning the wood is used to replace ‘fossil’ fuels such as gas or oil, then there is a saving in CO2 emissions.
Initially the wood chips will be supplied by Midlands Wood Fuel Ltd, but it is hoped that over the next few years the County Council will develop their own ‘home grown’ supply.
Cllr Alan Cockburn, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for Resources, said: “The council is committed to showing real community leadership in relation to climate change and we are determined that our own buildings will lead the way in energy reduction and carbon saving.
The project at St John’s Museum is one of a number of schemes to be allocated finance from the specific funding the Council has set aside to deliver climate change projects.”