High flying support helps swing in decarbonisation work at Denbigh Leisure Centre

A huge energy saving project which saw boilers old and new take to Denbigh skies has been completed.

Significant work has been carried out to reduce energy usage and cut back carbon emissions at Denbigh Leisure Centre which provided a sky wise spectacle for local residents due to the scale of the operation.

The Council’s Energy Team managed their biggest project to date to tackle energy efficiency and lower costs at the site run by Denbighshire Leisure Limited and owned by the Council with dual use by the High School for their curriculum.

The team has managed a number of projects across Council buildings, including leisure centres to improve building energy efficiency and also reduce emissions and usage costs over the longer term.

This work is part of the Council’s drive to address the climate and nature emergency declared in 2019 and reduce its own carbon footprint.

The Energy Team swung into action to tackle the first phase of work at Denbigh Leisure Centre, saw the installation of solar PV panels on the roof of the building.

This PV array it the first of a possible two to be installed and is 18.7Kw. It is funded by the Council’s Climate Change budget, generating a total of 15,545kWh per year and saving just over four tonnes of carbon renewable energy.

Each Kilowatt generated and used by the building will save around 30 pence. Installing this capacity not only reduces substantial carbon it also reduces strain on the local grid infrastructure.

Further stages of work at Denbigh Leisure Centre saw the replacement of the outdated and inefficient pool heating system to include heat recovery and improved atmospheric controls, a second PV array and LED lighting.

To tackle the sheer size of this project the old boilers were lifted out of the leisure centre roof by crane to awaiting vehicles at the front of the building. This crane was also used to lift in the replacement environmental control heat recovery unit.

Martyn Smith, Property Energy and Carbon Manager, said: “This is an extensive project at the leisure centre with work ongoing to bring different energy technology together to help lower energy use and costs at the site. The new, lower output, boilers and heat recovery, along with reduced costs from the solar PV system and LED lighting will have a significant effect on reducing energy bills. We are grateful to the local users of the site and Denbighshire Leisure Limited for supporting us while we carry out this work.”

Councillor Barry Mellor, Lead Member for Environment and Transport and Biodiversity Champion said: “This project will help the leisure centre not only provide a better environment for physical activities for users and reduce carbon but also support the site in reducing ongoing energy costs.

“We are committed to reducing our buildings carbon emissions and thank the Energy Team for their proactive work and the excellent engagement and support from Denbighshire Leisure Limited and the staff at Denbighshire Leisure Centre.”

Below is a time-lapse of the removal of the old boilers.