Decarbonising Tollesbury School

In late 2022 Tollesbury Climate Partnership (TCP) developed a plan to drastically reduce the carbon emissions from Tollesbury School. The basic plan was to replace the school’s oil boilers with low carbon, high efficiency heat pumps, improve the insulation of the school to reduce its energy demand and install solar panels to reduce overall electricity consumption.

The background to this project was that in 2022 TCP had been awarded funding from Maldon District Council to develop the business case for social investment into the local community.  Separately, Tollesbury School, in partnership with TCP, had been awarded funding from Essex County Council for community engagement in decarbonisation, including the potential for a community-led project to decarbonise the school. This enabled us to commission detailed studies of the requirements for fabric improvements and low-carbon heating systems at Tollesbury School

Working closely with the school’s Governors and with the blessing of Essex County Council, TCP put together an application which was submitted by the school to the Government’s “Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme” (PSDS).  The application was for a grant of £414k with the expectation that TCP would make a third party contribution of at least £200k.  The funding from TCP would be from community shares, a form of patient capital focused on social returns which is unique to co-operative and community benefit societies, such as Tollesbury Climate Partnership.  TCP is one of hundreds of community energy organisations which have been investing in low-carbon energy generation and other activities using this form of fund raising.

When the PSDS grant was awarded in December 2022, TCP then went about the task of putting together a detailed business case and community share offer to raise the necessary capital.  The basic business model was that Tollesbury Climate Partnership’s investment resulted in the school’s decarbonisation and reduction in energy use.  In exchange Tollesbury School recompenses TCP’s community investment from savings achieved on the cost of heating and lighting.  This highly innovative financial model saw us shortlisted for a Community Energy England annual award in 2023.  As TCP’s investment was targeted to fabric improvements at the school this also allowed us to link our share offer to the Government’s Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) that provides 50% income tax relief on any investment.

Community share offers that meet national standards of good practice to ensure openness, transparency and credibility can gain a Community Shares Standard Mark.  TCP’s share offer was awarded such a Standard Mark and launched on 17 April 2023.  By the beginning of June we had raised £250k, with individual investments ranging from £100 to £20,000.  We were delighted that 66% of the total investment was raised from within the local Maldon district.

Responsibility for delivering the project lay with Essex County Council (ECC) and their principal contractors Mitie, who appointed consultants to produced detailed designs for the overall scheme.  There were some elements of TCP’s scheme that were redesigned and upgraded, including new radiators and pipework throughout the school.  This resulted in a significant increase in the overall project cost that ECC funded.

During late 2023 and 2024 very significant works were undertaken at the school, often outside of school hours.  Additional roof insulation, double glazing and secondary glazing were installed to reduce heat loss from the school.  Lighting throughout the school was upgraded to LED.   The existing radiators and pipework were stripped out and replaced with new radiators designed to operate with the lower temperatures associated with a heat pump.   Drilling of thirteen 180 metre deep boreholes occurred on the school playing fields in July / August 2024 and the new ground source heat pump installed and commissioned in late summer.  Solar PV panels capable of producing a peak of 68 kW were installed on the school playing field in September and are now feeding green electricity into the school.  Later this year the school will benefit from significant electricity export to the grid.

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