Crawley Borough Council will ordered the new unit in the spring 2016 to work alongside the existing CHP in time for the autumn heating season. The original CHP supplies around 50 per cent of the centre’s energy.

A CHP allows simultaneous production of heat and electricity from a single source close to where the energy is needed. This means the heat and electricity generated can be used very efficiently because no energy is lost during transportation to another site. The CHP generates electricity while also capturing usable heat.

Crawley Council is paying for the new unit while Freedom Leisure, the centre’s operators, will pay for the energy they use to run the sports facility. The unit will reduce running costs by £30,000 per year while also saving 192 tonnes of carbon dioxide.