A SCHOOL could power itself through green means if permission for solar panels is granted.

Low Carbon Hub wants to add Long Furlong Primary School in Abingdon to its growing portfolio of schools which are utilising the might of the sun.

The social enterprise, which works with businesses and communities to provide renewable energy, has already fitted solar panels at twenty Oxfordshire schools as part of its Solar Energy for Schools scheme.

Long Furlong School, in Boulter Drive, is among ten which are awaiting the approval of planning applications.

Anthony Simpson, project manager of the schools initiative, said: "We are very hopeful it will go through. We are quite careful and wouldn't put it somewhere people would be sensitive to it, it's within the school grounds."

The not-for-profit group hopes to drill solar panels onto three roofs at the school, which Low Carbon Hub claims will generate 37,891kwh of clean electricity each year and save 337 tonnes of carbon dioxide over its lifetime.

Each solar panel project is community funded at no cost to the school, which Mr Simpson predicted would save Long Furlong a cost of £40,000.

He added: "Most schools are not motivated by money but because they are environmentally conscious. It's also a real eye-catching project to be able to share with parents, and an educational opportunity as they can monitor and analyse the energy use."

The Vale of White Horse District Council is due to decide on the application on May 26.