Wales Climate Week highlighted as power to make 1.5 billion cups of tea generated from photovoltaic panels on Wrexham houses

Electric car charging points, solar farms and an increase in wildflower and tree planting are amongst the changes being made locally to reduce emissions and improve biodiversity.

They feature as part of a series of projects being undertaken by the local authority in response to the growing threat of climate change.

Last year Wrexham Council declared a climate and ecological emergency and promised to continue investing in renewable sources and reducing its carbon footprint.

Now to coincide with Climate Change week 2020, the local authority has highlighted the progress being made to reduce its carbon emissions and future plans for a greener Wrexham.

It includes electric charges 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.

In Chirk car park there will soo be an ultra rapid charging station installed– thought to be the first in north Wales and the first owned by a local authority and Ruabon train station.

Wrexham Council has also installed 2675 units of Photovoltaic Panels (PV) on its domestic housing, with the council calculating they 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 fuels and 16,705,756 kg of carbon dioxide emissions were avoided.

They have also been installed in 15 local 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 a television being used which has resulted in 1,027,40 kg of carbon dioxide reduction.

Recently the local authority 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. 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.

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 ones 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.”

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.

Later this week Wrexham Council will also unveil its plans for the future, and a consultation for its Decarbonisation Action Plan.