Oxford Bus Firm has produced one million kilowatt hours of inexperienced electrical energy from photo voltaic panel arrays at its depots.
The bus firm, which additionally runs Thames Journey, is celebrating after reaching the sustainability milestone final month.
The photo voltaic installations surpassed 1,000,000 kwh – or 1 gigawatt – of electrical energy generated since they put in in 2013.
The inexperienced power generated is sufficient to energy round 345 houses for a 12 months, or to boil 11 million kettles.
Subsidiaries of the Go-Forward Group, Oxford Bus Firm and Thames Journey have a long-standing partnership with the Oxfordshire Social Enterprise Low Carbon Hub.
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In 2013 Oxford Bus Firm turned the primary native enterprise to accomplice with them to put in photo voltaic panels onto the depot website in Cowley.
In 2019 the partnership was prolonged additional, with photo voltaic panels put in on Thames Journey’s depot in Didcot.
The photo voltaic panels assist energy the 2 depots however have additionally generated wider profit for the local people, because the surpluses generated are utilized by the Low Carbon Hub to fund neighborhood power initiatives.
Luke Marion, finance and industrial Director at Oxford Bus Firm and Thames Journey, stated: “We’re actually pleased with this important sustainability milestone in our group of firms’ continued journey to turn out to be as low carbon as attainable.
“Our partnership with the Low Carbon Hub is predicated on shared sustainability and neighborhood values and has gone from power to power.”
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Barbara Hammond, CEO of Low Carbon Hub, stated: “It is a incredible milestone for clear power era in Oxfordshire. 9 years in the past we labored with Oxford Bus Firm to put in our first rooftop photo voltaic array, and now we now have 47 renewable power initiatives energetic throughout Oxfordshire.”
Greater than two-thirds of the Oxford Bus Firm and Thames Journey fleet of autos meets Euro VI emissions requirements, serving to to enhance air high quality in Oxfordshire.
In 2020 Oxford Bus Firm and Thames Journey collectively invested £1.2m in 9 new ultra-low emission autos.
Metropolis Sightseeing Oxford, owned by Oxford Bus Firm, launched the primary electrical bus to Oxford in 2020 and has since launched two extra to its fleet.
Oxford Bus Firm has additionally submitted a joint bid with Oxfordshire County Council and Stagecoach for £32.8m from the federal government’s Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas scheme.
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Go-Forward and Stagecoach have dedicated to take a position £43.7m and Oxfordshire County Council £6m, in a package deal price £82.5m that if profitable might ship as much as 159 electrical buses for the town, and the related infrastructure to cost them.
One bus can carry round 70 automotive drivers and the typical massive household automotive is 4.8 metres lengthy, that means one bus might probably save 300 metres of visitors queues.
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