Case Study · Education / Public Sector

Published 2026-04-01 · By Commercial Solar Finance editorial team

£2.35m portfolio decarbonisation across 8 schools — 78% grant-funded

A West Yorkshire multi-academy trust accessed PSDS Phase 3 funding for a bundled solar + heat pump portfolio. The trust's residual contribution: £520k against £215k of year-one savings — payback under 3 years on the trust's own capital.

Schools

8

PV total

1.2MWp

Project cost

£2.35m

PSDS grant

78%

Situation

A multi-academy trust in West Yorkshire operating 8 secondary schools with a combined estate of approximately 95,000m². Annual electricity spend across the portfolio £680k; annual gas spend £520k. Trust governance had identified Net Zero strategy as a strategic priority but lacked capital to deliver it from internal reserves.

Strategy

Solar-only PSDS applications historically score poorly on cost-per-tonne-of-CO2 metrics — the bar for solar is roughly £4,000 per tonne, while heat decarbonisation can reach £600–£1,500 per tonne. We bundled the application: 1.2MWp solar PV across all 8 schools (where roof condition allowed) plus air-source heat pump retrofits at the 4 schools with end-of-life gas boilers and suitable plant rooms.

Application

The application took 14 weeks to develop, including site surveys at all 8 schools, structural assessments where required, electrical capacity assessments, heat pump sizing studies for the 4 retrofit schools, and a detailed business case modelling carbon savings, energy savings, and total project cost across a 30-year operating period. We coordinated with Salix Finance and the Carbon Trust through pre-application engagement to ensure the application matched scoring criteria.

Outcome

Total project cost (PV + heat pumps)£2,350,000
PSDS Phase 3 grant award£1,830,000 (78%)
Trust contribution from capital reserves£520,000
Year-one electricity saving£135,000
Year-one gas saving (heat pumps)£80,000
Total year-one saving£215,000
Payback on trust contribution2.4 yrs
Annual CO2e avoidance285 tonnes

Why bundling worked

PSDS scores applications on emissions reduction per pound of grant. Solar PV in school applications typically scores at £3,500–£5,000 per tonne of CO2 avoided. Heat pump retrofits replacing gas can score at £900–£1,400 per tonne. The bundled application's blended cost-per-tonne came out at £1,650 — well within the competitive band that wins funding.

Critically, the bundle let solar 'ride' alongside the heat decarbonisation: the application would have scored well on heat pumps alone, and adding solar improved both the economics and the resilience of the application without dragging down the per-tonne metric materially.

Delivery considerations

  • PSDS delivery deadlines required completion within 18 months of award — procurement framework selection had to be in place before application submission.
  • Roof condition surveys identified 2 of 8 schools requiring re-roofing before PV — these were sequenced into the schools' capital programme rather than included in the PSDS bid.
  • Holiday-period PV generation exceeds school demand significantly — system sizing was tuned to maximise term-time self-consumption rather than peak capacity.
  • Heat pump retrofit schools had operational constraints around 6-week summer holiday delivery windows.

Frequently asked questions

How did the West Yorkshire Multi-Academy Trust secure 78% PSDS grant funding?
The Trust achieved 78% grant coverage by submitting a bundled application across 8 schools that blended high-impact sites (with older gas heating converted to heat pumps, improving the CO2-per-£ metric significantly) alongside lower-cost solar-only sites. The overall blended cost-per-tonne came in below £180/tCO2 — well within DESNZ's informal threshold. The Trust's Head of Estates had also ensured verified AMR meter data was available for all 8 sites, avoiding the application delays caused by estimated baseline consumption figures that plagued competing bids.
What was the West Yorkshire MAT's own capital contribution and payback?
The Trust's own capital contribution after PSDS grant was £520,000 (22% of the £2.35 million project cost). Year-one electricity and heating savings across the 8 schools totalled approximately £215,000. Simple payback on the Trust's net contribution is under 2.5 years — exceptional for a capital investment, and significantly better than the 6–8 year payback a private business would typically model without grant support. The residual Trust capital was approved as "invest-to-save" expenditure, which is treated favourably under DfE capital funding guidance.
How did the West Yorkshire MAT bundle 8 schools in a single PSDS application?
The Trust established a single legal entity as the applicant (the MAT itself, as an exempt charity and Academy Trust), with all 8 school sites listed as delivery locations. A single contractor was procured via the CCS Construction Framework to cover all sites. The application presented a single aggregate technical specification and carbon reduction forecast, with site-level breakdowns in appendices. The bundled approach is now the recommended structure for multi-academy trusts following DESNZ guidance issued after Phase 3 — single-site school applications are increasingly competitive against larger bundles.
What is the total carbon saving from the West Yorkshire MAT project?
The 1.2MWp solar installation combined with heat pump conversions across the portfolio is estimated to reduce the Trust's annual CO2 emissions by approximately 285 tonnes per year — approximately a 65% reduction against the pre-project baseline. Over the assumed 25-year asset life, the total carbon abatement is approximately 7,125 tCO2. Against the PSDS grant of £1.83 million, this gives a cost-per-tonne of approximately £257 over the project lifetime — within DESNZ's threshold and consistent with similar Phase 3 successful bids from the education sector.

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