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Author Archives: Admin
Europe’s future depends on cities resilient to climate change
14 May 2012: European Environment Agency (EEA) report launched considering the response required by EU cities to rising temperatures as a result of climate change. “In Europe, temperature is increasing, precipitation is changing and sea level is rising. However, the effects will not be uniform across the continent, according to the EEA report, ‘Urban adaptation to climate change in Europe‘. The report is the first Europe-wide assessment of urban vulnerability to climate change.” Read the full press release here.
London Low Carbon Buildings: video case studies
May 2012: Regeneration and construction experts Wilmott Dixon have posted videos on Youtube of two developments that they have been working on in London with a specific brief to reduce energy and carbon emissions. These are:
Retrofit Case Study of a London Victorian Property – a good example of the type of activity that will need to go ahead under the Green Deal in London, with extensive use of IWI (internal wall insulation) resulting in a reduction of 50% in the energy baseline of the dwelling.
Building the zero carbon ‘in use’ Crouch Hill Community Park, Islington – An update on the Crouch Hill Community Park project, developed with Islington Borough Council, which is to be the UK’s first zero carbon ‘in use’ school with a community energy centre that will also provide heat to an adjacent housing estate.
Posted in News
Tagged Buildings, Energy Efficiency, Green Deal, insulation, Islington, Schools, Solid Wall Insulation
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Olympics2012-Energy and Carbon Lessons Learned
May 2012: The ODA have established a learning legacy website which “has the aim to ” sharing the knowledge and the lessons learned from the construction of the Olympic Park, to help raise the bar within the sector “. Included amongst the material posted there is a number of documents relating to the energy initiatives undertaken on site at the Olympics:
The Olympic Park Energy Strategy Case Study
Energy In Use Implementation Guidance for Project Teams sets out the ODA’s requirements and the standard tools, templates and methodologies for demonstrating compliance with the carbon objectives detailed in the ODA’s Sustainable Development Strategy.
The environmental impact of the thermal insulation used at the Olympic Park, where several contractors sourced and installed insulation materials which were considered to be healthier for the operative installing the product (and potentially future maintainers) and which came from natural sources, such as plant matter or recycled material.
Reducing embodied carbon through efficient design – As the operational carbon emissions from buildings are reduced through energy efficiency measures, the embodied carbon emissions in construction materials become more significant. Two key strategies were used at the Park to reduce the embodied carbon of venues and infrastructure.
Achieving the Part L target at the Aquatics Centre – the ODA target to exceed 2006 Part L Building Regulations by 15 per cent was not included in the Aquatics Centre’s original design brief, but was instructed by RIBA – the design team successfully incorporated the requirements by focusing on the building systems and fabric improvements.
The Velodrome, the most energy efficient venue on the Olympic Park – which has a designed energy efficiency improvement of 31 per cent over 2006 building regulations.
Carbon reduction in transport management– reviews the Olympic Delivery Authority’s (ODA’s) approach to reducing the carbon impact of its transport arrangements and associated lessons learned.
Posted in Library, News
Tagged Carbon Emissions, Embodied Carbon, insulation, Olympics
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All homes built on Olympic park to be zero-carbon
May 2012: The London Legacy Development Corporation has recently published a new sustainability guide for the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park which sets out priorities against seven environment objectives which including requirements for:
- Zero carbon homes
- 15 per cent reduction in emissions from actual energy use by Park occupants over five years by promoting energy efficient home appliances
- 25 per cent reduction in operational emissions over five years in venues and parklands
- 100 per cent of homes will have smart meters to help people monitor their energy use
- Ensure 95 per cent of visitors to events and attractions arrive by public transport, cycle or foot
- 20 per cent of car parking spaces to have access to electric charging
- By 2020 60 per cent of household waste should be recycled or composted compared to a London average today of 32 per cent
- Energy efficient lighting throughout the Park
After the Games the Development Corporation will create a 225 hectare park with 102 hectares of open space, up to 8,000 homes, five permanent sporting venues, event spaces, 45 hectares of bio diverse habitat and a network of pathways, cycle routes and waterways. The document ‘Your Sustainability Guide to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park’ can be downloaded via the following page or directly here.
Free London Mapping Tool
May 2012: From the London Datastore website:
‘Have you ever wanted to create a quick thematic map of London but lacked the GIS skills or software to do it yourself?
There is a free mapping tool from the GLA Intelligence Unit that allows the user to input their own borough data to create an instant map that can be copied over into Word or another application of their choice. More information and the tool itself can be found here.’
KX CHP
May 2012: The first of three 2 MW Combined Heat and Power (CHP) engines for the 67 acre King’s Cross Central development has been installed at the on-site energy centre. In total the CHP capacity when finally installed will supply 100% of the development’s heat and offset almost 80% of its electrical power demand. The news release sets out that “Once commissioned, the CHP engine will not only generate electricity, which will be fed into the grid network, but will also provide heat for the development wide District Heating System (DHS). All of the 70 buildings at King’s Cross, from the University of Arts to the Camden Council building, BNP Paribas Real Estate’s new offices and the Great Northern Hotel, will be connected to the DHS When complete carbon emissions are expected to be a third less than ‘business as usual’ and up to 60% less than 2001 levels.”
Further information on the energy strategy for Kings Cross central here and main energy assessment (as set out for the planning application in 2005) can be downloaded here.
Posted in Decentralised Energy, News
Tagged Camden, CHP, Community Heating, Decentralised Energy, Universities
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‘Councils can lead green deal’
May 2012: Article highlighting work undertaken by the Association for Public Service Excellence setting out that “central government must unlock local authorities’ potential to develop the green economy as a matter of urgency…Local authorities should also have greater financial freedom to boost the green economy. For example, they could offer council tax rebates to households that reduce carbon usage. This could be complemented by a tax exemption on low-carbon regeneration projects that are financed through municipal bonds. The exemption would be a temporary measure to stimulate green growth until the UK economy fully recovers.
Other measures outlined in the report include requiring the electricity industry to work on district energy planning and making Feed-In Tariffs viable for large-scale social housing schemes.”
‘London to test ‘smart city’ operating system’
May 2012: BBC News story reporting that “An operating system designed to power the smart cities of the future will be put through its paces in London. With partners including Hitachi, Phillips and Greenwich council, it aims to use the Greenwich peninsula as a testbed for new technologies running on the system. The OS aims to connect key services such as water, transport, and energy.”
Further information is available on Living Plan IT’s website which states “The Urban Operating System (UOS™) is the core technology platform that will manage vast amounts of data across cities and urban spaces and thereby facilitate smarter, sustainable and intelligent-living. This, in turn, will lead to more efficient use of energy and other resources, providing the basis for innovative services for residents, businesses and governments as well as new jobs and exports.”
How London compares to other leading cities on carbon/energy
May 2012: The World Bank have just published a report which focuses on Chinese cities and the need for these areas of growth to respond to the challenges of climate change. The report however also provides a comparison of London against a number of other world cities, looking at a range of low-carbon metrics (emissions per capita, CO2 intensity, energy consumption per capita and so on – see Tabl3 3.1 – pg 85) which may be of interest. The World Bank news story around the release of the report is available here, and the report itself – Sustainable low-carbon city development in China – can be downloaded here.
Brent Schools and Climate Change Conference
April 2012: Members of Brent Campaign Against Climate Change and Brent Council officers are organising a schools climate change conference to take place in the Summer. It will be aimed at 6th formers and FE students with a separate workshop for primary teachers in the afternoon. Further information here.
London Arts Theatres start energy collective purchasing deal
20 April 2012: Regular energy for london read, The Stage, has highlighted how the “National Theatre, the Royal Opera House and the Royal Albert Hall have clubbed together to form an energy-buying collective that will enable them to purchase electricity at lower rates. The scheme, called Arts Basket, is being run by energy consultancy Power Efficiency. The group is also inviting other theatres and arts venues to join the initiative.“ Read the full article here. Further information on the Arts Basket – which is an initiative launched by Balfour Beatty company Power Efficiency – can be found here.
Renewable Heat Grant Statistics
19 April 2012: The Government’s Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP) scheme operates for a limited period prior to the introduction of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) – and provides money to householders to help buy renewable heating technologies – solar thermal panels, heat pumps and biomass boilers.
For solar thermal products, any householder in England, Scotland and Wales can apply – hence the grants are applicable to Londoners. However, for ground to water, air to water or water to water heat pumps, and for biomass boilers, householders without gas central heating in England, Scotland and Wales can apply (in other words those who are not connected to the gas grid and currently rely on fuels such as oil, liquid gas, solid fuel or electricity for their heating).
The Energy Saving Trust (EST) manages the scheme and have just produced statistics showing the installation of Renewable Heat Premium Payment technologies by region. A total of 74 installations were installed in London out of a total of 5,369 installations across England, Scotland and Wales (just over 1%). The breakdown in London is as follows:
- Air Source Heat Pump – 21
- Ground or Water Source Heat Pump – 2
- Solar Thermal – 51