Schools waste 30% of energy on weekends and holidays

^{Image shows Bellevue Place Education Trust}

According to a new report, 30 per cent of school’s total energy usage is wasted over the weekends and holidays.

The report by eEnergy examines the environmental and financial impact of installing LED lighting, solar panels, and other energy efficiency and waste reduction measures, in the UK and Ireland’s schools and colleges.

It found that 70 per cent of UK schools are using outdated lighting infrastructure by not using energy-efficient LEDs.

If the remaining schools did switch to LEDs, they would have the potential to save around £2.31 billion in a decade and an emissions-reduction of 287,265 TCO2e per year, the report said.

eEnergy states that UK schools are expected to meet Net Zero with little external funding.

While the government has a Public Sector Decarbonisation scheme in place, eEnergy estimates that the government would need to invest at least £5.4 billion to install adequate rooftop solar, LED lighting and EV charging to UK schools. This is 286 per cent more than the current Public Sector Decarbonisation scheme, which is supposed to cover all public sector organisations, not only schools.

The company says that by monitoring and reducing energy waste, schools will have more money to put back into their infrastructure and equipment, while cutting emissions, reducing energy costs, and getting closer to achieving Net Zero. 

Read the full report here.