THE sunny weather is proving to be a real boon for Poole Council's newly installed solar panels.

An array of photovoltaic panels covering the rooftop of the Civic Centre multi-storey staff car park are proving to be more than paying their way already.

They cost £289,800 to install and it was hoped they would save the council more than £24,000 a year. However in just one day £87 was saved and over the last 27 days Borough of Poole has reaped £2,241.06, excluding any feed-in tariff from its power bill.

"This is a really encouraging start and we can already see that this innovative project is helping us to reduce our energy consumption at the Civic Centre," said Julian McLaughlin, head of transportation services.

"We have had some great weather over the last month and this has been reflected in the savings being achieved. We are well on our way to exceeding the anticipated level of savings that this project will bring in its first year."

The green project is aimed at reducing the electricity bill as well as the council's carbon footprint.

More than 500 solar panels were fitted to a steel framework and it is estimated that they will provide around 13 per cent of the Civic Centre's electricity as well as helping to achieve a gross saving of more than £24,000 a year and a carbon reduction of more than 51 tonnes.

The project is the result of months of work by Borough of Poole's carbon management programme and transportation service and is being managed and delivered by Poole Housing Partnership.

Work began building the steel framework in January and the panels were installed and generating electricity in March.

The green energy initiative is being funded through borrowing via the Public Works Loan Board, an executive agency of HM Treasury.