THE two leisure centres in West Devon are to be fitted with solar panels later this year in a bid to save tonnes of C02 being released into the atmosphere.

The project to green-proof the local swimming pools is going ahead after borough councillors agreed a loan up to £300,000 to Fusion Lifestyle, which operates the centres on their behalf.

Meadowlands in Tavistock and Parklands in Okehampton are among six leisures centres run by Fusion Lifestyle across West Devon and the South Hams which are being fitted with the panels.

Once up and running, the solar panels will supply 40% of the total annual electricity bill for the six sites, reducing their annual carbon footprint by 185 tonnes of CO2.

West Devon borough councillors voted to back the loan at their full council meeting on Tuesday last week. It follows financial bailouts to Fusion to keep the centres afloat when they were severely affected by the covid pandemic.

The move will also allow West Devon to reduce its C02 output, in line with the council having declared a climate emergency. It is its latest financial contribution to Fusion, to which it provided bailouts to weather the pandemic.

A spokesperson for Fusion Lifestyle said: ‘The plan is to install the panels this year. Solar panels will be installed at all six Fusion sites in South Hams and West Devon, making it possible to reduce electricity consumption by 39% over 20 years.

‘A definitive date for installation is yet to be confirmed, once we have aligned dates with our partners at South Hams and West Devon Council.’

The Fusion spokesperson confirmed that the installation would considerably reduce their running costs.

‘There will be a significant reduction in the energy consumption and running costs, but more importantly, these environmentally driven initiatives will make a significant difference to the reduction in carbon emissions.’

West Devon Borough Council has, in common with other councils, declared a climate emergency, which includes the pledge to reduce carbon emissions from council facilities to net zero by 2030. The solar panels will go some way towards this in reducing the amount of energy which the council has to ‘buy in’ to run the centres. Fusion expect the solar panels to generate 75,000 kWh electricity at Meadowlands per year, being 20% of the total annual electricity bill, while Parklands will generate 150,000 kWh electricity per year, being 44% of the total annual electricity demand of the building.

This will see annual carbon emissions will reduce by 17 tonnes of CO2 at Meadowlands, and by 36 tonnes at Parklands, a significant contribution towards reducing the carbon footprint of the borough.