A RACECOURSE in the North of England has spent £75,000 on more than 200 solar panels on the grandstand roof.
The 300 year old Beverley Racecourse, in Yorkshire, will now produce 50kW of renewable energy from the panels, cutting down dramatically the carbon footprint of the establishment.
The solar installation will also generate more than £5,000 a year as well as making huge savings to the racecourse’s energy bills.
Sally Iggulden, chief executive of Beverley Racecourse, said: "We were keen to ensure we were doing everything possible to reduce our impact on the environment and wanted to work with a supplier with a good track record who would keep disruption to a minimum while we continued our day to day operations.
"We are already seeing financial benefits for our business, partnered with the satisfying fact that the site now uses green energy.
"It's something that we've been thinking about for a while. Given our surroundings, it's important to us to look out for our environment."
The work was done by Yorkshire renewable firm Think Renewable Energy, part of the Ogden Energy Group.
Jamie Warden, operations director at Think Renewable Energy, said the scheme would protect the racecourse from energy price rises.
He said: "This is a large solar PV scheme that is expected to generate more than £5k in feed-in tariff income in the first year, as well as insulating Beverley Racecourse from the impact of rising power prices.
"It will also help the racecourse achieve its green energy objectives by preventing more than 22 tonnes of CO2 emissions a year."
