A LEISURE centre on Portland is doing its bit for the environment after it revealed it saved more than £100,000 on energy costs after working with two experts.

The management team at Osprey Leisure Centre, based in Castletown, teamed up with Wendy Carmichael and Dr Bob Hardwick four years ago to try and slash the centre’s energy costs as the centre was facing closure due to its sky high bill of £120,000 per year. The energy bill has decreased dramatically since then, and with the help of a loan from The Carbon Trust, the centre now pays £60,000 per year for its energy and more energy-saving measures that are to be introduced next year will see it save another £40,000 per annum.

Nigel Williams, manager at the centre, introduced alternative ways of conserving on-site energy, including pool covers, air handling and water control, and an overhaul of the centre’s lighting equipment.

Now, the centre is set to install solar panels and heat pumps to generate renewable electricity. Dr Bob Hardwick, from Lean Energy, said: “We are now confident that we have lean energy consumption at the centre, so now is the perfect time to invest in renewable energy from sources such as solar power and heat pmps.”

He added: “The centre has old, oversized gas boilers, and they are next being replaced by a high efficiency air source heat pump system. “The government is very keen to get us all to move away from gas and so the site will be paid a ‘Renewable Heat Incentive’ (RHI) under the national scheme to support the installation costs. “The installation is ground-breaking, as it increases the amount of renewable energy supplied by this heat pump system to more than off-set, by a factor of two, the costs of operating it.”

Ms Carmichael added: “What impressed me about the Osprey project was that from challenging beginnings the management set their ambitions high, but with a forward thinking manager in Nigel Williams and the help of Dr Hardwick the team embraced new technology that have produced savings for the centre.”

Manager Nigel Williams said: “Osprey Leisure Centre is now leading the way in energy efficiency in leisure centres in the South West.”