LEOMINSTER Primary School is now days away from switching on one of the largest solar arrays on a school in the UK.

The 90kW array is to go live in the coming weeks, before staff and pupils move into the new school after the October half-term holiday.

The new £11.23 million school is an amalgamation of the town's junior and infant schools.

“Insulating our schools from predicted rises in energy bills is one of the best ways we can help to make sure that vital school budgets remain focussed on education and don’t drain away just keeping the buildings habitable," said Felicity Norman, director of Leominster Sunrise Co-Op.

"This new building has been built to high standards in terms of insulation and the large solar photovoltaic array that our co-op has installed on the roof is going to help to slash energy bills further and reduce the carbon footprint of the school. We hope it’s the first of many for Leominster and Herefordshire."

The community share offer is reaching completion with 77 per cent of funds already raised and only £34,500 left to secure.

The share offer is now accepting applications on a rolling basis.

The school will get cheaper electricity as a result of the array and reduce its carbon footprint by 36 tonnes a year, for more than 20 years.

Members of the co-op are predicted to get an internal rate of return of four per cent, which is boosted to 10.4 per cent with Seed Enterprise Investment tax relief.

For more information visit leominstersunrise.org.uk