Renewable energy hub planned for Scottish coal museum

Renewable energy hub planned for Scottish coal museum5 days agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleKevin KeaneScotland environment, energy and rural affairs correspondentNational Mining Museum ScotlandDesigners have created a vision for what the museum site might eventually look likeA former 19th Century coal mining 'super-pit' in Midlothian is to be turned into a renewable energy hub providing green electricity for the local community.The Lady Victoria Colliery at Newtongrange, which closed in the 1980s after almost 90 years of operation, has since been preserved as Scotland's national mining museum.The attraction has unveiled plans to install solar panels on the roofs of colliery buildings as well as housing a battery and electric vehicle charging.The charity is now beginning a fund raising campaign to help pay for the transformation.National Mining Museum ScotlandThis boiler house is inaccessible to visitors but it's hoped the hub can generate enough funds for it to be opened upOnce operational, the hub will cut energy bills and provide a revenue stream to help secure the museum's futureMarion Brown, 90, who worked at the colliery as a teenager in the 1950s says it's an important way of keeping alive the memory of those people who worked and sometimes died at the pits.She said: "I'm glad [the museum] is being kept because history is a good thing. You've got to find out what happened in the past to get onto the future, to make it better."The pit, which opened in 1895, has been described as one of the best preserved Victorian-era colliery sites in Europe.Marion Brown, aged 90, worked at the colliery site as a teenager in the 1950s.It closed in 1981 before the surface site was turned into a museum piece three years later.But the roofs of several grade A-listed buildings are in a poor state of repair and need to be replaced and so the opportunity is being taken to add the solar-PV panels.Other solar panels will be inst...