A GOLF club in Flintshire is using its share of a £1million Sport Wales grant for an energy efficient scheme.

Sport Wales has awarded the funding to help community sports clubs’ facilities become more energy efficient – saving clubs thousands of pounds while also benefiting the environment.

Sports clubs across Wales have received an Energy Saving Grant which they’ll use towards the cost of measures that will significantly reduce their utility bills.

Hawarden Golf Club will use its £22,996 grant to install a new system to capture and recycle rainwater so that it can be used to wash down various machinery used at the golf club such as tractors, grass cutters and buggies. This will greatly reduce the club’s reliance on mains water.

Brian Davies, CEO of Sport Wales, said: “It is really important to us that Wales has financially sustainable sports clubs that can benefit the communities they serve by providing affordable activities.

“However, many sports clubs that run premises have really struggled due to the financial impact of the cost-of-living crisis, so we are really pleased to be able to support their ideas for reducing their energy consumption which could save them significant amounts of money in both the short and long term. Furthermore, such innovations are also helping to make a contribution to the climate emergency.  

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“We are confident that the return on our £1m investment will be several times that amount in terms of the overall financial savings generated for clubs, helping them to keep the cost of sport as low as possible for participants.”

Brian added: “This is the first time that we’ve ever offered an Energy Saving Grant. Based on the demand that clubs have shown to receive such support, recognising both the environmental and financial benefits of energy saving measures, we are hopeful that we will be able to award more of these grants in the future.”

All of the grants have been made possible thanks to a total £10.3m worth of capital funding for 2023-24 which has been allocated to Sport Wales by the Welsh Government.