As part of Climate Change week 2020 we’re bringing you an update about what we’ve been doing to reduce our carbon emissions and we’re really pleased with the progress made to date.
Cllr David A Bithell, Lead Member for Environment and Transport, said: “We declared a Climate Emergency in 2019 but were very active before that in ensuring that we pay close attention to our carbon emissions and our role in encouraging our residents and businesses to do the same. It’s sometimes difficult with limited resources but what we have already achieved is very encouraging.
“We also recently trialled an electric refuse vehicle on our rounds with very encouraging results. Our refuse vehicles emit a lot of carbon emissions and it’s vital we look to replace our vehicles with electric chargers at the earliest opportunity.
“Our work in the environment, particularly with tree planting and wildflower meadows is now creating an environment that has ecology and biodiversity at its centre and work is continuing in this area.
“Part of our role is to ensure that the infrastructure is ready to support a greener, carbon free Wrexham which is why we’ve installed Electric Vehicle charging points across the county borough.”
Read on for information about where they are and about how we’re generating electricity from solar panels to stop harmful carbon dioxide emissions through fossil fuels.
Electric chargers are now in car parks at:
Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, Ty Mawr, Ty Pawb, Waterworld, Alyn Waters, Abbey Road, Ruthin Road, Lambpit Street, Redwither Tower, Guildhall, Llay Resource Centre, Plas Pentwyn, Bersham Enterprise Centre, Glyn Ceiriog Community Centre.
And will soon be installed in Chirk car park which will be an ultra rapid charging station – thought to be the first in N.Wales and the first owned by a local authority,and Ruabon train station.
We’ve also been very keen to use Photovoltaic Panels (PV) and we installed 2675 units on our domestic housing. These have created enough electricity to make 1,540,412,450 cups of tea or 308,082,490 of watching TV. This has meant that power stations have used less fossil fules and 16,705,756 kg of carbon dioxide emissions were avoided.
We’ve installed them in 15 of our schools, at Ruthin Road, Redwither Tower and Acton and Llay resource centres.
These have generated 94,868,300 cups of tea or 18,973,660 hours of TV which has resulted in 1,027,40 kg of carbon dioxide reduction.
Recently we also installed new 249kw solar at our building on Ruthin Road which so far has made a 60% saving on the electricity bill for Ruthin Road. This is the more recent project and has been a great success. It’s already made 9,049,650 cups of tea and 1,809,930 hours of TV and saved 97,917kg of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere.
For the first time, the Welsh Government will be holding a series of free, digital and interactive events across this week, where anyone passionate about climate change can join conversations with national and global policy makers, campaigners and innovators about how climate change can be tackled.
Throughout the week, the sessions will cover issues involving agriculture, young people, hospitals and schools, as well as fashion, businesses, mobility and much more. Most importantly, it will provide practical examples of what individuals and organisations can do themselves to help fight against Wales’ climate emergency. You can find out more about these here https://waterfront.eventscase.com/EN/walesclimateweek
We’ll be bringing you further news later in the week about our plans for the future and about a consultation we’ll be undertaking on our Decarbonisation Action Plan.
Download the Covid-19 NHS app…and help keep Wrexham safe this autumn.
[button color=”” size=”large” type=”square_outlined” target=”new” link=” https://www.covid19.nhs.uk/”]DOWNLOAD THE NHS APP[/button]
