An attraction documenting Bradford’s smoggy industrial past will soon become a shining example of “green” energy.

Bradford Industrial Museum, based in the 140-year-old Moorside Mills building, will next month see the installation of a low-carbon “biomass boiler” that will power the building.

Once up and running, it will cut down the Council-run museum’s carbon emissions by 130 tonnes a year, and the Council says it is “quite fitting” that a revolutionary piece of machinery would power a building containing machines that made Bradford an industrial superpower.

Four years ago, Bradford Council unanimously agreed to reduce its carbon footprint, mainly through using less fuel and investing in renewable energy for its buildings.

Similar low carbon boilers are already being used to power City Hall and Ilkley Town Hall.

Moorside Mills, on Moorside Road in Eccleshill, has been run as a museum since the 1970s, when Bradford Council bought the mill and turned it into a centre where the district’s industrial past is celebrated. Inside the large building there are working examples of the machinery used in the city’s industrial heyday as well as a collection of antique vehicles and trams.

The boiler will replace the existing gas boilers with one that burns wood pellets to power the building and it will be housed in an existing plantroom.

When they approved the boiler, planning officers pointed out that although they reduce carbon, such boilers can cause health problems because of their emissions. To mitigate this, the boiler at the industrial museum will have a filter that will remove 95 per cent of particle emissions.

A Council spokesman said: “It will reduce the museum’s carbon emissions by up to 130 tonnes a year.”