BRISTOL City Council plans to develop a ten-year, multi-million pound renewable energy project in the city.

The council has been awarded £2.5 million from the European Investment Bank to invest in the schemes, which it hopes will create up to 1,500 jobs.

The programme will focus on improving the energy efficiency of more than 6,000 homes and public buildings through wall insulation and other renewable energy measures such as biomass boilers and heat pumps.

It will also install more than 7,000 renewable energy-generating systems, such as solar panels, on homes and public buildings.

And the council wants to set up its own energy company to generate renewable energy.

Council leader Barbara Janke, pictured, said: "It is a really exciting project which will deliver real jobs in Bristol. It puts Bristol at the forefront of green technology and supports the bid we have put in for the green capital."

The energy company will be an "arms-length" organisation which will employ people to produce energy and sell it to the national grid.

Mrs Janke said: "The council itself can't produce energy, so this organisation will be a public investment company and will trade on its own basis and repay the loan from the EIB. We believe this has huge scope for bringing down the cost of energy and will make us more resilient and less sensitive to the national energy market. It will also improve our energy security and make energy cheaper.

"It shows the confidence that Bristol can deliver this multi-million pound bid and that the business case we have put is a very strong one.

"It is based on working in partnership, and will produce renewable energy, reduce carbon emissions and improve energy conservation.

"Local authorities were in their heyday essentially providers of public utilities. So this is not so much a departure as a return to something that was rather successful in its day."

The council is working with the City of Bristol College to deliver the skilled labour required for the project.

Work has already begun on increasing the level of renewable energy production on public buildings in the city.

Photovoltaic solar panels have been installed at Fonthill, St Anne's Park, Hotwells and Victoria Park schools. The council has helped Summerhill Infants install its own panels, and will help launch Redland Green School's panels in the new year.

The council has spent £250,000 on solar panels so far, and has committed another £750,000 to further projects.

Biomass boilers, which burn wood pellets, chips or logs from trees or branches felled by council workers, have been installed at Fonthill school, The Park in Knowle and on the Blaise Castle estate, and the council has part-financed a biomass boiler at the M shed museum.

It has also installed external cladding on 300 flats in recent years, such as Croydon House and Rawnsley House on Easton Way, spending £3 million a year.