Royal Ascot Golf Club in Berkshire has installed 124 silicon panels and planted 2,500 trees across its 18-hole course, which sits on 150 acres of wooded crown land in Windsor Great Park.
The panels will generate a third of the club’s electricity requirements and save 17,500kg of carbon emissions annually – the equivalent of boiling water for 1.2million cups of tea or driving the earth’s circumference more than twice.
The club’s new source of energy will be used to power its seven-day-a-week regenerated clubhouse, fleet of electric golf buggies and maintenance measures used by its team of eight full-time greenkeepers.
It forms part of Royal Ascot Golf Club’s vision to become one of the most sustainable clubs in the country.
Helping to lift the club’s tree planting scheme off the ground was Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, who cut the ribbon on the club’s Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Wood which sits in the heart of the course as part of the project.
Stephen Nicholson, general manager at Royal Ascot Golf Club, said: “Enhancing our commitment to sustainability and providing a habitat which supports our existing biodiversity is a key objective for the club.
“Investment behind our newly installed solar panels has been committed with our long-term future in mind both as a cost-friendly way of generating our own electricity and having a positive impact on the environment.
“Our club has been built on land with established oak, ash, beech, birch and larch trees and is a protected environmental area which we’re proud to maintain and enhance through our tree planting programme.
“This is a great step in the right direction towards achieving our sustainability vision and operating as a friendly, sociable and forward-thinking club with the community at its heart.”
Founded in 1887, Royal Ascot Golf Club was granted Royal status by Queen Victoria and is set in 150 acres of the splendid woodland of Windsor Great Park, off Winkfield Road and adjacent to the world-famous racecourse.
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