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Further stages of work at Denbigh Leisure Centre saw the replacement of the outdated and inefficient pool heating system to include heat recovery and improved atmospheric controls, a second PV array and LED lighting.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

Its FUNGI time!

You might think that nature starts to sleep as the nights draw in and the weather turns colder. But damp and cool weather is perfect for waking up our fun-gi friends. You might start to notice a multitude of mushrooms while walking around the county and be fascinated at how different and diverse that they can be. The presence of mushrooms and other fungi is very beneficial to wildlife and biodiversity, they can also be a good sign that an ecosystem (a connected community of different species) is healthy.

Mushrooms on a log at Coed Pen-y-Pigyn, Corwen

Fungi are not plants

It used to be thought that fungi were a type of plant because they have a similar lifecycle. However, they are now defined as their own separate biological kingdom, in the same way that animals and plants are also within their own biological kingdoms.

What do Fungi do?

Fungi play a vital part in nature and humans have been relying on them for food and medicine for many years. Fungi play a vital role in breaking down materials, such as turning deadwood into nutrients that can be absorbed by trees or other plants. Many fungi also have symbiotic relationships with trees (a relationship which benefits both species) where they provide nutrients to the tree and the tree supports them in return. It is thought that life on earth would not exist if we didn’t have fungal species – they are that important!

Fungi and Climate Change

Fungi has a part to play in the fight against climate change (due to the impact of humans producing too much atmospheric carbon). Fungi are known to be carbon stores, so the more mushrooms the more carbon is stored away. Some species of fungi that live underground have the potential to store gigatons (a billion tons) of carbon dioxide every year.

How can I support fungi?

• You could keep a wild or nature area in a damp patch in your garden
• You could photograph any mushrooms you see when visiting any of our county nature areas or wildflower meadows over the autumn
• Take part in Plantlife’s Waxcap Watch 
• Admire the fungi you find in nature but don’t pick it, it is working hard to support nature exactly where it is.

Butter Waxcap found on one of our wildflower meadow sites

Mushroom on grassland

A Parrot Waxcap hiding on Caer Drewyn

Safety First

There are many species of mushrooms and without in-depth identification experience it can be very difficult to tell harmful fungi from edible fungi. Therefore, it is always recommended to never eat wild mushrooms unless you have had training or are accompanied by an experienced fungi forager or mycologist.

For more information  

To find out how we are working to reduce our carbon emissions and support nature recovery in the county please visit our Climate and Ecological Change on our website.