Infrastructure

We have invested more than £60m on installing and building energy saving and low-carbon technology for our own operations, and for the wider community.

We have installed solar panels generating around 2MW of electricity on 35 buildings and schools right across Gateshead. As a result, solar energy now provides around 5% of power for all Council buildings and schools.

The council generates around 25 mW of heat and 18mW of power at its Gateshead Energy Centre on Quarryfield Road and currently provides 5% of all the power used by employers in Gateshead. This low-carbon, low cost energy is then distributed via our 4km underground network of pipes and wires to Gateshead Civic Centre, other major buildings such as Baltic, The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, Gateshead  Leisure Centre and Gateshead College, and hundreds of homes in central Gateshead.

In our buildings, we have invested in energy efficiency - for example, at Gateshead Civic Centre energy use has dropped by 28% in the last 10 years. In one programme, we replaced the 1980's internal lighting with modern lighting fitted with motion sensors to detect when an area was not in use, ending the wasteful illumination of empty offices.

These and other efforts have resulted in a fall in carbon emissions of 55% from all Council operations and services.