Solar panels to power city college

A college plans to unplug from the National Grid and generate its power with a "solar meadow".

Jewel & Esk College in Edinburgh aims to create a one-acre site of around 800 solar panels adjacent to the campus, which will generate 1,076KW of energy a day, enough to be energy sufficient.

Surplus electricity from the solar meadow, so called because it will be planted with grasses and wildflowers, will be made available to local community groups and projects.

The college said the project is one of a number being developed to reduce its reliance on Government funding. The solar power site will cost 300,000 to build but will save around 150,000 a year in electricity bills.

The planning application was submitted to Midlothian Council earlier this month and the college said initial discussions were positive.

The site will be used as a study area for students to analyse the interaction between the biodiversity and the solar panels.

Professor Steve Tinsley, project leader, said: "This is a tremendously exciting project for us. In creating the solar meadow we are providing the first teaching facility of its kind in Scotland for our students and lecturers, whilst developing innovative ways for the college to become less reliant on Government funding.

"Such projects will help up-skill the next generation of engineers and play an essential role in closing the skills gap in low-carbon technologies. Knowledge transfer on this level can also significantly benefit our industry partners and the economy as a whole."

Work is scheduled to start early next year and should be complete by the end of the year.

Earlier this week Jewel & Esk entered merger talks with Stevenson and Telford College in Edinburgh, in light of Education Secretary Mike Russell encouraging higher and further education institutions to find ways of working in the face of public spending cuts.