BIDEFORD College has been given a £21,150 grant to help it become carbon neutral in the next two years.

The school, which received the funds from Scottish Power's Green Energy Trust, is currently undergoing an award-winning £55 million rebuild.

The college, which was recently crowned winner of a national award for excellence for its sustainable design, will use the grant from the trust to install solar panels to the science block.

The panels will produce 12 kilowatts of renewable energy and will be placed on the only original building, which will be used as a sixth form centre and changing rooms.

Mike Newby MBE, Bideford's new college co-ordinator, said: "We are a large school with around 1,700 pupils, and the challenge to become carbon neutral in two years is very ambitious, but we believe we can do it.

"Help from the trust is exactly the boost the initiative needed to get us off the ground.

"We have started the project with a bang and will keep this momentum going throughout the next two years in the hope of achieving our target."