Further lighting improvements across Highland Council estate through Salix Recycling Fund

Highland Council is delighted to announce that further lighting improvement works across the organisations non-domestic estate, valued at over £700,000, will be commencing imminently.

The works will focus on upgrading older high-performance fittings with new, energy efficient LED bulbs.

The works will take place across over 20 sites and will be primarily focused on leisure facilities and public facing buildings, resulting in an improved lighting environment for building users, whilst helping to reduce energy consumption and the associated carbon emissions and revenue spend.

The works are expected to save over 120 tonnes of CO2e annually and realise annual financial savings of over £60,000.

The upgrades were made possible thanks to funding from the Scottish Government through Salix, an independent, government-funded organisation that provides interest-free loans to the public sector for energy efficiency projects.

The Council utilised Salix’s Recycling Fund (RF), a ring-fenced pot of money held by the local authority, which is created with capital provided by the Scottish Government through Salix and equally matched by the local authority.

The fund aims to increase long-term investment in energy-efficient technologies across the public sector, by enabling clients to reinvest savings from previous projects to finance further energy reduction schemes.

Highland Council has invested £6m in the RF, which when matched by Salix takes the total fund value to £17m – this is the largest fund in operation for a local authority in the UK.

Leader of The Highland Council Raymond Bremner said, “It is great to see continued large scale investment from Highland Council through the Salix Recycling Fund – operating such a large fund presents huge opportunity for the organisation and the need for the fund, and the associated benefits, are only heightened by the very challenging energy picture we are currently facing.”

Martin MacDonald, Project Manager and Salix Fund Manager said: “Through the fund we have already invested over £4m in lighting upgrades across the estate – the carbon and financial savings are really strong and that helps us mitigate against price increases whilst furnishing the fund with savings for future investment.

"The nature of the buildings, long operating hours and high-performance lighting, makes this a really important phase of work.”

The lighting replacement works are due to be complete by January 2023.