Colleges switch on to solar power

Colleges have been installing solar panels and wind turbines

A quarter of further education colleges have solar panels or are in the process of installing them, a survey examining eco-awareness suggests.

The Green Colleges survey shows that many buildings have been refurbished to incorporate features that are environmentally friendly.

A fifth of those surveyed are using biomass boilers and 70% have carried out an energy audit.

The survey was carried out on behalf of the Association of Colleges.

The colleges' organisation says the survey shows a high level of environmental awareness - with a large proportion of colleges taking an interest in recycling and promoting green transport policies.

Slurry power

Further education colleges, which teach four million students, occupy buildings collectively worth £5.8bn.

And the survey suggests that the modernisation of buildings - with individual colleges spending up to £90m on rebuilding - has brought green technology into many.

Among the green features included are wind turbines, water recycling, energy efficient lightbulbs and promoting car sharing and cycling.

There are colleges which have become green showcases, such as Somerset College in Taunton, where the Genesis Centre has been designed to show how sustainable building techniques can be used in mainstream construction.

This building, which won a sustainability award last year, consists of sections constructed of earth, straw, clay and timber and a water pavilion using water-saving devices.

The Harris Centre at the Walford and North Shropshire College uses an "anaerobic digester" which generates electricity by converting cow slurry from the college farm into methane gas fuel.

Duchy College, part of Cornwall College, has four cars and a minibus which run on "bio-fuel" from recycled chip fat.