RENEWABLE energy could be used in future to power Gloucestershire County Council’s buildings to save money and cut carbon emissions.

The innovative idea, being looked at by an Environment Scrutiny task group, could see the council saving £5m annually, generating income and becoming almost carbon neutral within 10 years.

The aim is to use green technology like solar panels, wind turbines and anaerobic digestion to become a lean, green council which provides all its own energy, reducing the financial burden on the council taxpayer.

At the moment the council produces around 60,000 tonnes of carbon every year and spend more than £8million on energy bills.

The pioneering approach to renewables would make Gloucestershire one of the first councils in the UK to look at generating and selling electricity on this scale.

At the moment there are no firm plans in place, but feasibility studies are due to be carried out over the next six months to determine what could be done.

One of the ideas is to set up a separate company to sell our surplus energy generated back to the grid, which will generate further income for the council.

So far, if all the ideas explored by the scrutiny group were adopted the cash-strapped council would need an estimated capital investment of £180million. However, it believes that would bring an annual return of £420million.

To achieve the £5million savings and become carbon neutral would mean investments of around £25million, however no money has been committed to this project yet.

Council leader Mark Hawthorne said: “This is not a quick fix, it’s about finding a sustainable way of working which dramatically cuts costs, reduces our impact on the environment and increases the security of energy supply.

“There is a cost involved here and before we commit to spending any money, we will ensure whatever we end up doing is worthwhile and will provide the benefits we expect.”