Portsmouth Naval Base boosted in efforts to protect environment with £3.5m grants for new buildings and upgrades

It comes as multi-million-pound government grants will continue to help spearhead the base’s efforts to drive down energy use.

Seven grants have been given by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with work already underway to deliver on these projects, including the new Queen Elizabeth Class Forward Logistics Centre (QLC).

It comes as the base’s approach has seen it come up with other ways to protect the environment including welcoming a fleet of 48 electric Nissan e-NV200 vans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by around 40 per cent in 2017.

The navy also welcomed new warship HMS Tamar to Portsmouth last year – touted by the Senior Service as the ‘most environmentally-friendly since the age of sail’.

Naval base Commander, Commodore JJ Bailey ADC said: ‘We are grateful for the investments from government as we all work together to meet the carbon reduction goals and our base’s ambition of being carbon-neutral by 2040.

‘The Forward Logistics Centre will be the first carbon-neutral building on the base, an exciting development in our carbon reduction strategy.

‘But we recognise that we will not stop here and that there is more work to do in improving the energy efficiency of the legacy estate – some of it built before the Industrial Revolution but still part of the equation in reducing how we remove carbon emissions from our operational outputs.’

Two grants will provide up to £625,000 for the solar panels and LED lighting at the QLC. The solar energy will recharge electric forklift trucks used to move pallets for the Queen Elizabeth class - helping operations to become carbon-free.

Further funding will see solar panel canopies over existing car park spaces, improvements in HMS Nelson’s energy supply saving about 600 tonnes of CO2 per year.

Single glazed windows in Victory Building will be replaced with triple along with more installation of LED in place of mechanical ballast lighting in three buildings. There will also be improvements to the heating system.

Recent figures show the base power consumption has been reduced by more than 50 per cent since 2003 with carbon emissions reduced by nearly two-thirds to 31,300 tonnes.

Efficiency measures have been introduced over the period including other solar panel installations and use of combined heat and power plants.

The base has also just installed three small wind turbines to power offices at D Lock, with data from here determining whether more buildings are fitted with similar turbines.

The News launched the Going for Green campaign this year in conjunction with Portsmouth Climate Action Board, urging both residents and businesses to adopt measures to reduce emissions and so improve air quality in the city.

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