Our climate emergency performance

We monitor our use of energy to understand where we can be more efficient and reduce our carbon emissions. A full performance report is produced quarterly and there is a snapshot of our current performance below.

Energy consumption

• Electricity: 32,322 MWh (12 monthly rolling data for July 2023 to June 2024)
• Gas: 16,513 MWh (12 monthly rolling data for July 2023 to June 2024)

This data is for the Kent County Council (KCC) corporate estate that includes:

• street lighting
• highways assets
• signals and displays
• KCC buildings
• Commercial Services
• traded companies.

We do not purchase energy using a green energy tariff, as we prefer to invest directly in renewable energy projects within Kent.

Energy efficiency

Using the Salix loan funding that was previously available to local authorities we have completed 89 energy efficiency projects including LED lighting and sensors, boiler conversions, building management systems and draught proofing. These loans allowed us to carry out approximately £3 million worth of projects in our own buildings and with local schools.

We have also carried out an extensive LED lighting replacement for our street lighting. In December 2015, we converted almost 120,000 streetlights and signs to LED, which reduced our energy consumption by 29,014,000 kWh and saved 18,563 tonnes of CO2e* emissions.

We were awarded just over £20 million of grant funding from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Fund in February 2021 and have recently been successful in a further round of the grant funding where we will receive £1.8 million. The grant funding has been used for further heat pump installations, LED lighting, window replacements, pipework insulation and solar PV installations

*(CO2e stands for carbon dioxide equivalent. It is the standard measurement of greenhouse gases in terms of the most common greenhouse gas- carbon dioxide)

Energy generation

We have come a long way since our very first solar panel installation at Hever Primary School in 2007.

Our total energy generation to date from solar on our own buildings is 4,543,256 kWh, which is the equivalent to a saving of 940 tonnes of CO2e. This impact is the same as planting 53,156 trees*!

* this data can be found on the monitoring platform environmental benefits calculation.

We have also purchased a second solar farm which started operating in November 2023 and is expected to create 3,000,000kWh of renewable electricity per annum. This is estimated to save 621 tonnes of CO2e per year. This is in addition to our first solar farm which has capacity for 39,312 solar panels and is providing 22,000 megawatt hours of green electricity to the grid per year. This is saving 43 tonnes of CO2e* per year.

Solar array generation to date :

Heat decarbonisation

The decarbonisation of heat requires a rapid change from fossil fuel reliant heating systems, such as oil and gas, to renewable energy heat systems. The favoured technology is heat pumps, which can be ground source, air source or water source. We have set ourselves a target of converting at least 50% of our fossil fuel boilers to heat pumps by 2030 and are looking to end all reliance on oil fired heating by 2025.

Using our Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme funding, we installed heat pumps in 3 of our buildings.

• We converted the oil heating at The Swattenden Centre to a ground source heat pump which is saving 16 tonnes of CO2e* every year.
• A failing biomass boiler was converted to an air source heat pump at the Ashford Highways Depot which is expected to save 3 tonnes CO2e** per year.
• We installed a ground source heat pump at Oakwood House which is saving 43 tonnes of CO2e* per year.

Total emissions***

We try to keep this information up to date, however due to reporting timescales, this data may differ from the latest quarterly performance report.

• Total tonnes of CO2e 11.251 (12 monthly rolling data for April 2023 to March 2024).
• Total tonnes of CO2e per FTE 1.45 (12 monthly rolling data for April 2023 to March 2024).
• Variance % since baseline (2019) - 54% reduction (based on Kent County Council (KCC) action only, excludes decarbonisation of grid supplied energy).

**This is an approximation of CO2e emissions, using the government conversion factors for electricity (2023).

***Data taken from the LASER GHG Report 2023-24 Q4. Includes street lighting, highways assets, signals and displays, Commercial Services, traded companies and KCC buildings including leased buildings, fleet vehicles and KCC business mileage. Emissions calculated using data for electricity, gas, heating fuels, fleet fuels and business mileage.