Solar canopies at Salisbury's Five Rivers centre help cut council emissions and energy costs

Solar canopies at Five Rivers Health and Wellbeing Centre in Salisbury are helping Wiltshire Council generate renewable electricity, reduce carbon emissions and lower the cost of running public buildings.

Wiltshire Council is expanding its use of solar canopies across the county, installing solar panels above car parks to generate electricity while keeping parking spaces available for visitors.

The latest installation has become operational at Melksham Community Campus, where solar panels now cover 34 parking spaces and provide renewable electricity for the building.

The new canopies are in addition to the 575 solar panels already installed on the campus roof. They also provide shade and shelter for people using the car park.

The project builds on existing solar canopy installations at Five Rivers Health and Wellbeing Centre in Salisbury and Corsham Community Campus.

At Five Rivers, three solar canopies cover 70 parking spaces and generate enough electricity to meet approximately 10% of the centre's total power demand.

Further expansion is planned at the new Trowbridge Leisure Centre, where five solar canopies will feature 483 solar panels above 64 parking spaces.

The new leisure centre will also have rooftop solar panels and use air source heat pumps for heating as part of its all-electric design.

Cllr Helen Belcher, Cabinet Member for Economic Development, Enterprise, Regeneration and Assets at Wiltshire Council, said solar canopies allow the authority to make better use of existing space.

She said: "Solar canopies make use of the space above car parks to generate electricity for our buildings, while keeping the parking spaces available for visitors."

She added that the Melksham installation was already providing renewable electricity while offering shade and shelter to people parking at the campus.

Generating electricity on site also helps reduce the council's reliance on the national grid and the costs associated with operating public services.

Across Wiltshire Council's solar installations, approximately 2.8 million kilowatt hours of electricity are generated each year, meeting around 20% of the authority's electricity demand.

The council says energy efficiency improvements and renewable energy generation across its buildings delivered estimated net savings of £1 million during the 2025/26 financial year.

The solar canopy projects form part of wider efforts to reduce energy consumption and replace fossil fuel heating in council-owned buildings, including leisure centres, libraries and offices.

Wiltshire Council also reports that its direct carbon emissions have fallen by just over 82% since 2019.

The authority says these improvements are helping reduce the environmental impact and running costs of buildings used by residents across the county.

More information about Wiltshire Council's climate change work is available at https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/climate-change.