Household waste to provide ‘green heating’ for schools

The city’s Energy Recovery Facility on Bernard Road is designed to handle 225,000 tonnes of refuse and already heats over 140 buildings across the city through the District Energy Network.

It also exports up to 19 megawatts of electricity to the National Grid, which experts say is enough to power 22,00 homes.

Buildings already on the system include the city’s hospitals, universities, theatres, Winter Garden and many other public buildings.

Sheffield Council said the refurbished All Saints Catholic High School and Seven Hills Special School in Granville Road will both go online in September and take advantage of what a spokesman described as “green” heating.

Bob Sawyer, headteacher at All Saints School said: “We are very excited about the redevelopment of our school and the new heating system is an excellent initiative designed to reduce our carbon footprint and to keep running costs down.

“The students have been really enthusiastic about the changes and have been involved in planning many aspects of the new buildings.”

Coun Andrew Sangar, the council’s climate change spokesman added: “We are really proud of the recycled energy that is used to heat so many of the city’s public buildings and several hundred households.

“It also means that we are able to keep the amount of household waste sent to landfill to just nine per cent, which is one of the lowest figures in the country.”