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Council chiefs hire spy plane to save energy

Apr 5 2009 by Sam Wood, Sunday Sun

A thermal image of the Tyne Bridge

NORTH councils plan to hire a “spy plane” to map homes and businesses that waste energy.

In an effort to cut carbon emissions, three councils will team up to pay for the plane.

The project this autumn is a partnership by Newcastle, Gateshead and North Tyneside councils.

An aircraft will take thermal image shots of homes and commercial buildings

These will be used to produce a heat-loss map showing buildings wasting most heat, enabling councils to direct help where needed in Warm Zone projects.

The aircraft with thermal imaging camera costs about £30,000 to hire and needs clear skies for the technology to work.

Newcastle City Council head of sustainability Les Clark said: “We need to cut our emissions by 80 per cent over the next 40 years. This is the first step towards meeting those targets as part of our climate change strategy.

“It could be an incredibly useful tool for us to use. At the end of this we should have a heat map showing us exactly where the city is wasting energy. We will then be able to see what areas we need to work on to try to met those targets.

“We will not be using this to knock on individual homes to force people into improving their insulation, it will be used to provide us with a broader picture of what is going on in the city and where heat is being wasted.” A Gateshead Council spokesman said it would take part.

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