2009.  Lee Wakemans are pleased to announce their appointment for cost management services for the £3m mechanical and electrical installation for a new Energy Centre at HMP Guys Marsh near Shaftsbury.  The prison will be the first in the country to build a massive green energy system to heat its cells.

HMP Guys Marsh was originally opened in 1960 as a borstal and became a Young Offenders Institute (YOI) in 1984.  After completion of perimeter fencing in 1992 it had became a closed establishment and started to accommodate adults.  Guys Marsh has grown to become a combined YOI and prison holding up to 600 people.

The exisitng heating and hot water system of old oil-fired boilers will be replaced by building a 1.2megawatt biomass boiler that will burn woodchip from local woods.  The prison service already has several small biomass boilers heating its compounds but Guys Marsh will be the first in the country to use wood fuel on such a large scale.

The renewable energy system will burn 30 cubic metres of woodchip (from woods within a 50-mile radius) each day to provide heating and hot water for the 600 inmates plus staff.  Two million kilograms of carbon dioxide will be saved every year by replacing the outdated heavy fuel oil boiler with the new technology.

The project is planned for completion by the 31st March 2011.