BOURNEMOUTH University has received £1.4million as a part of a government scheme on energy efficiency.

The university has been awarded the money as a part of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, which aims to reduce carbon emissions in hospitals, schools, universities and other public sector buildings.

Wimborne Academy Trust has also received £330,203 as a part of the scheme, which has seen more than £33million awarded to public sector buildings and institutions in the south west.

The money will be used by Bournemouth University (BU) to replace end of life fossil fuel gas boilers on the Talbot Campus, with electrically powered Air Source Heat Pumps. They will also add “hundreds” more solar panels.

The total cost of the project will be £1.6million, as the university will be adding a further 12 per cent contribution to the grants received by the government.

Lois Betts, Bournemouth University’s sustainability manager, said: “This important funding will support our commitment to climate action and help us progress towards net zero emissions by 2030/31.

“It will enable significant changes to heating and hot water systems for our Talbot Campus, moving away from fossil fuel gas to air source heat pumps in three buildings and installing a renewable energy solar panel system on Dorset House.”

Fossil fuel gas heating and hot water will be removed from Dorset House, Sir Michael Cobham Library and Kimmeridge House.

The additional solar panels will generate an estimated 100,000kWh of green electricity per year.

This forms part of the Heat Decarbonisation Plan, which BU developed this year to “carry out technical studies of 21 BU buildings to identify how to move to low carbon heating sources”.

Dave Archer, Bournemouth University’s energy manager, said: “We expect to be able to remove around 200 tonnes of carbon equivalent through this project.

“At BU our Environmental and Energy Management System is certified to international standards, and this means we have systems in place to track our energy use and measure the impact of this project.”

The project will begin in summer 2023 with the aim of completion by the end of March 2024.