'A huge part of starting my career’ – being a clean energy apprentice

• Toyin Coomes-Allen was an apprentice working on Transport for London’s first gas-free depot
• Therapia Lane site in Croydon is a pilot for TfL’s decarbonisation journey
• Similar projects will now take place at its other sites
• Our series is celebrating the variety of success stories from the Low Carbon Skills Fund

A student who completed an apprenticeship working on Transport for London’s first gas-free depot has described it as “an amazing experience.” 

Toyin Coomes-Allen, who’s currently studying at Aston University, spent a year with the team involved in the landmark project at Therapia Lane in Croydon.   

“It’s a huge part of starting my career off in project management.  It was my first experience of the industry.  I would go on site and speak to the contractors and engineers, understanding how we’d integrate the technology.  I loved every bit of it,” she told us.   

We spoke to Toyin as part of our series celebrating some of the many success stories from the Low Carbon Skills Fund, administered by our team at Salix. 

The fund ran from 2020 to 2025 providing grants for public sector organisations to engage specialist and expert advice and skills needed to create robust heat decarbonisation plans to prepare for heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency works.

Hundreds of solar panels are now on the roof of the busy depot, with heat pumps and infrared panel heaters added inside.  The measures are expected to save around 183 tCO2e a year – the same emissions as a petrol car driving for around 1.7 million miles.  

“Being on TfL’s first net zero depot is a major thing to be a part of and it’s a great start of an initiative showing how TfL’s going above and beyond with the environment,” Toyin said.   

“My parents were like ‘wow, that was a really big project to be a part of’ and see it helping better our future. 

“It was great working with different people throughout the whole year, getting different experiences.  Getting advice from different people has really helped me understand project management in a lot more depth and the skills I need. 

“As a young person, I hopefully have years on this planet to come, so it’s great to be part of a fulfilling project where I see it having an importance with the environment and how we can better our systems and built environment.  Infrastructure projects have become a huge interest of mine now.”