A BRADFORD school could soon be home to one of the biggest solar panel arrays in the district.

Oasis Academy Lister Park has submitted a planning application to install over 700 photo voltaic panels across the roof of the large Manningham school.

The scheme, which is likely to cost over £227,000, will prevent 88,542 kilograms of Carbon Dioxide being released into the atmosphere each year - massively reducing the school’s Carbon footprint.

A planning application for the solar array has been submitted to Bradford Council, with a decision due to be made in the New Year.

It will be made up of 702 Jinko Solar 270w modules, installed across the flat roof of the North Avenue building.

The school has over 1,000 pupils on its rolls.

It is part of a national plan by the Oasis Academy trust to install solar panels across initial fourteen primary and secondary sites, with the first being Oasis Academy New Oak, situated in Bristol .

Work on that school is expected to be completed by January.

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Oasis Community Learning have partnered with Eden Sustainable to complete this large scale project.

Eden is also part of a broader group which includes social housing and sustainable tourism and the Pickwell Foundation, which makes donations to Climate Change and people displacement causes globally.

Rowena Stone, Project Manager at Oasis Community Learning, said; “We are very excited to announce that Eden Sustainable are our partner for installing Solar Panels.”

“The installation of Solar Panels is an incredibly exciting project and has been in the pipeline for a number of years.

“With this initiative, we will be reducing our carbon footprint, reducing energy bills and equipping academies with real life data that can be used as a teaching resource in science and technology.”

Scott Burrows, Managing Director at Eden Sustainable, added; “We are over the moon to be working with Oasis Community Learning on this flagship scheme.

“They have truly embraced their responsibility in this era of a Climate Emergency by not only rolling out solar across their estate, but by also employing measures to disseminate the message to the students and community.

“Whether a school, business, or government we must all make similar decisions and encourage others to do the same.”

Oasis Community Learning has recently created a new ‘Environmental and Sustainability Group’ with staff from the trust. Mr Burrows will also be a member of this group advising on wider sustainability initiatives.

The newly formed group will act as ‘sustainability champions’ across the family of academies and will look at developing a policy, strategy and implementation to roll out this project.

There has recently been a push to make Bradford more sustainable. All new housing developments are now required to have electric car charging points installed for each property - and more points in public car parks are planned. Bradford Council is currently in the midsts of a clean air review, required to help reduce harmful air levels in parts of the district.