admin

About admin

Posts by :

April 25 2023

Unlocking Green Energy in Greater Manchester

Our Story

Public sector organisations, including Local Authorities, are usually one of the biggest energy consumers due to their large estates and typically older, inefficient office buildings. The removal of green subsidies has weakened the financial case for renewables, with already stretched financial resources, local authorities are struggling to find ways to reduce their carbon footprint effectively.

To combat this, an EDRF funded partnership between Energy Systems Catapult and five GM local authorities; Manchester, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, and Wigan, created the Unlocking Clean Energy initiative. It aims to deliver 10MW of renewable energy and storage projects, while increasing local authority capacity to deliver more projects without grant funding reliance.

Using EDRF funding, the five local authorities will deliver circa 10 renewable energy projects across Greater Manchester, producing approximately 25% of the 2024 renewable energy target, cutting carbon emissions and increasing capacity.

The Challenge

Naturally, working across five different local authorities bring with it a variety of different skills, capabilities, and approaches to topics such as procurement, finance and capital projects. Ensuring we are all on the same page, we set up a consortium to monitor progress and share knowledge and ideas to help overcome challenges. It’s been an excellent forum to help the project progress. But it wouldn’t have been possible without having willing, able, and engaging partners on board; therefore making sure you have the right people involved is invaluable.

It is also critical to understand where the project team has gaps in skills and come up with a plan to address this. Our local authority partners received excellent support from the Local Energy North West Hub during our planning phase, but we have also had to procure sub-contractors for certain tasks as well as the preparation and submission of planning applications.

Our Solution

In terms of the ten projects we have up and running, we believe we will be saving 31,000 tonnes of Co2 emissions per year, with that set to rise if the identified business models are adopted more widely.

Salford City Council have a solar and hydroelectric energy scheme with battery storage and EV charging, alongside a 2MWH Solar Farm in Little Hulton. The site covers 3.79 hectares and comprises of 5,094 solar panels, generating power for 438 homes a year. It aims to increase biodiversity on the site and improve access to nature for local people by renovating and connecting some adjacent green space. A hydro-electricity generation project at Charlestown Weir will use the River Irwell to generate 710kWh of energy a year, enough to power around 200 homes.

Stockport Council has three proposed roof mounted solar projects which are part funded by the European Regional Development Fund. Two projects will be located at the new business / leisure hub, Stockport Exchange and the other at the Endeavour House depot in Bredbury. These consist of a mix of solar PV, battery storage, solar car ports and ancillary EV charging.

Alongside the capital delivery programme, Energy Systems Catapult are exploring innovative business models with the aim of improving the financial case for the development of similar projects in the future when grant funding won’t be available. The combination of capacity building among local authority partners, with new and innovative business models, will hopefully lay the foundations for increased deployment of renewable energy infrastructure without reliance on grant funding.

The scheme also aims to tie in with the Greater Manchester Five-Year Environment Plan which targets carbon neutrality by 2038 and an additional 45MW of renewable energy generation capacity by 2024, with increased diversity and flexibility.

Find out more

To find out more about how Green Energy for Greater Manchester, head to: es.catapult.org.uk/UCEGM

April 25 2023

Go Neutral Smart Energy Call-Off Framework

admin

Our Story

We have made great strides towards delivering renewable energy across the Manchester City Region as part of the 5-year Environment Plan for Greater Manchester. However, a lot more needs to be done at a larger scale to achieve carbon neutrality by 2038 and to stimulate the local economy recovery since the Covid pandemic.

Go Neutral is a Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA)-led Smart Energy initiative aimed towards decarbonising our city region and deliver effective social value, community wealth building and inclusive growth.

The initiative will aim to take more control of how we generate, use and trade our energy locally to create a resilient energy system, create greener, healthier and more affordable lifestyles, and create diverse investment opportunities that will help create new jobs and skills on our way to carbon neutrality by 2038.

With phase 1 nearing completion, efforts are tuning towards the second phase of the project which aims to dramatically scale impact and delivery, expanding the deployment opportunities across the city region and working effectively with the 10 districts.

Our Solution

Phase 1 of the Go Neutral project delivered a pipeline of 20MW of new renewable energy generation and battery storage across all of GM’s districts by the end of 2023, and will support circa 575 jobs through feasibility, design, and delivery.

The first phase over the first three years of the project, will identify, develop, and deliver at least 85MW of power generation and potential supporting battery storage and electric vehicle charging infrastructure across 430 assets owned by 13 public sector partners.

In total, this could provide 25 MWp of building integrated solar PV with supporting battery storage, 10MWp of solar car ports, and 50MWp of ground mounted solar PR; both with supported battery storage and potential to extend out to wind generation, EV forecourts, and charging hubs.

Phase 2 looks to make the most of underused public sector owned assets by making them available for smart energy deployment opportunities. Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and the Environment Agency will shortlist sites for potential development opportunities based.

on their geospatial characteristics and local intelligence. 768 (and counting) underutilised sites have been shortlisted by partners for potential integrated smart energy solutions.

To help streamline the procurement and delivery of these opportunities, we are currently putting in place a GMCA-led smart energy call-off framework. It will allow users to contract with providers to make carbon savings and/ or cost savings through implementing ‘smart energy interventions’ to their buildings, car parks and land assets via a range of investment and delivery models. The framework will be accessible to all UK public sector organisations.

April 24 2023

EA Technology: Delivering Network Visibility

admin

Our Story

Our mission is to promote the development of resilient, accessible, low-cost energy networks globally, accelerating the transition to energy decarbonisation. It’s in our DNA and we are passionate about it!

We educate and facilitate the introduction of low carbon technologies and work collaboratively with regulators, organisations and partners to manage the effects of climate change. We make it our business to deliver innovative solutions to operators of power networks globally as well as helping accelerate progress towards clean growth, adaption and resilience of energy networks.

As we continue our transition to Net Zero, data, particularly from the low voltage networks is a key enabler. This data is crucial to decisions about the optimum locations to site renewable generation, Electric Vehicle (EV) chargers and battery storage as well as other network connection requests.

In partnership with SP Energy Networks, the distribution network operator responsible for the local area, this project has installed our VisNet® Hub technology in 673 substations across Cheshire’s Energy Innovation District. We believe that this initiative will make the area the most monitored Low Voltage electricity network in the world.

The Challenge

The main challenge about this project has been to communicate it clearly and articulate why the data is of interest. Decarbonisation necessitates greater electrification, and a move away from fossil fuels. To achieve this by 2050 it requires increased efficiency and making the best use of existing capacity on the electricity network before reinforcement is required.

But we also want to generate interest in the electricity system. We have tried to make the data easily understandable and to explain why some of the load curves from some substations differ from others depending on the customers it serves.

Our Solution

Delivering Network Visibility is making Low Voltage electricity network data available to anyone who may be interested. The network data that this project is making available can help energy generation and storage investors interested in identifying capacity constraints to inform location selections. It also helps energy consumers researching opportunities for demand side measures; such as reduced EV charging, deferred space heating, and management of battery storage solutions. It provides traders with local energy markets for trading variable loads with variable generation within the sub region and allows EV ChargePoint installers and operators to locate new sites.

Our VisNet Hub platforms, devices or stations will provide near real-time data from monitored substations. The data provided can be real-time or historical for all or just some of the monitored substations. As well as load, it includes most other useful parameters.

Whether you are a planner, developer, community organisation, academic or interested in electricity networks, we think this data will help you.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CLICK HERE.

April 24 2023

Commerical Building Decarbonisation

admin

Our Story

Climate change is everyone’s business. It is also our business. Our mission is to promote the development of resilient, accessible, low-cost energy networks globally, accelerating the transition to energy decarbonisation. We educate and facilitate the introduction of low carbon technologies and work collaboratively with regulators, organisations and partners to manage the effects of climate change. We make it our business to deliver innovative solutions to operators of power networks globally as well as helping accelerate progress towards clean growth, adaptation and resilience of energy networks.

We have pledged to completely decarbonise our 1950’s headquarters building and continue to invest in this with the aim of making it net zero with features including EV charging points, solar PV panels on the roof, a low-carbon heating system, LED lighting, and an energy storage facility.

We are openly sharing our decarbonisation journey, documenting it as a blueprint, paving the way for others to adopt as they look to embark on their decarbonisation journey and retrofit their own legacy buildings.

The Challenge

Our building decarbonisation plan has faced challenges, some of which were completely unpredictable. The pandemic made us pause and rethink how we use our building and reassess our priorities for it, including a blockage in the Suez Canal that delayed the arrival of our new battery system . . . to name but a few.

Extensive research and data gathering is essential to get a good understanding of the building your in and to focus on specific areas that need the most work. Think about how much energy the building uses, does it change by day and night or weekday or weekend? How is that split by different processes and loads like heating and lighting? Also, what is the operational ‘base load’ for essential equipment? These questions gave us a greater understanding of the work that needed to be done and how it could be done most effectively.

Secondly, it’s important to consider how the use of the building may change over time. It may be as fundamental as whether you will still be in the same building in ten years. This is something that the pandemic made very obvious to us when it accelerated subtle changes in the way we use our HQ building, speeding up a process that now sees some colleagues working at home more frequently.

Finally, prioritise energy efficiency above anything else. Reducing the amount of energy that your building uses is a first step in any decarbonisation plan and greatly increases the effectiveness of the more obvious technologies.

It’s also important to bear in mind that a ‘one size fits all’ method won’t work as every building is different. However for most buildings, upgrading the installation and thermal efficiency is a “must”, other technologies such as heat pumps can be unsuitable, or operate very inefficiently if the insulation is not sufficient. This should be done before any low carbon heat sources are installed as the cost-benefit for other equipment often relies on the insulation.

Our Solution

EA Technology is still in the process of installing the commissioning the various low carbon technologies being deployed as part of this project. We’ve recently installed a 372Kwh lithium-ion battery storage system, and the low-carbon heat system along with the PV panels will be generating around 50Kwh of zero carbon electricity. Our building control system balances the needs of all these systems to ensure we prioritise low-carbon generation. As a result, we save over 94,000 tonnes of CO2 a year being released into the atmosphere.

However we know that our decarbonisation journey is far from over. We have gathered a great deal of information so far and we are learning as we progress along our journey to Net Zero. As we continue to complete our decarbonisation project, we will be sharing each step on our website.

We also welcome anyone that is interested on tours of our HQ building in Cheshire, both virtual and in person, where you can see the progress for yourself!

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CLICK HERE.

April 24 2023

The Rebuild Site: Rethink, Reclaim, Reuse

admin

Our Story

The creation of The Rebuild Suite was driven by our knowledge of circular economy, the glaringly obvious issue of good quality surplus construction materials being treated as waste, and the will to do things better for our planet and our local communities. By encouraging the reuse of existing surplus materials we are playing our part to reduce waste and lower the amount of carbon used in creating new materials.

The surplus materials we pick up go to community groups and charities to help with their building, gardening, crafting and repair projects. We also sell nearly new and surplus materials to trades and members of the public at reduced prices – perfect for that DIY project you’re planning to get underway!

A circular economy is restorative and regenerative by design, and aims to keep products, components, and materials looping at their highest utility and value at all times – decreasing our consumption of resources, and crucially also reducing our carbon footprint. The Rebuild Site brings together contractors, organisations, communities and individuals to create a circular economy ecosystem.

The Challenge

Reaching out and building partnerships with contractors and organisations was key to making The Rebuild Site a success. Online surplus materials platforms, construction companies, and third sector organisations such as Men’s Sheds, Heathlands Trust, Right2Work, and Give a Day Carlisle helped us get a good understanding of the trade and operating a circular economy.

We were able to access public sector bodies such as Carlisle City Council and the Cumbria LEP who provided invaluable advice and support, with the Cumbria Social Enterprise Partnership offering great free support and resources.

We recognise we are still at the start of our journey, therefore we continue to be open to discussions, partnering opportunities and learning from others. We are learning as much as possible and deliberately seeking out advice from people who know different things than we do.

We are very cognisant of role that organisations like ourselves play in providing a working example that others can learn from. As such, we are endeavouring to document the process of setting up and operating the organisation at every stage with a view to replicating the model across the country.

We’ve also done a lot of work on establishing our values, vision and overall mission. It’s important to think about who you are and what you stand for as it will be make it easier for new partners to buy into your idea and form a collective goal that everyone in your organisation will work towards.

Our Solution

Our work has both environmental and social impacts. We aim to collect as much data as possible to enable learning and improve our end results. This includes detailing all materials that are collected, estimating the reduction in carbon emissions by reuse of materials, any reduction in landfill, and resource management improvements at all our sites we liaise with. By doing this, we can provide quantifiable data that can be used to help form into effective solutions for the wider construction industry.

As well as our environmental impacts, we also measure the social impact our work does. We work hard to transfer our skills and knowledge through training courses and the education programmes we deliver, as well as noting how many community and charity projects we assist and outreach programmes we host.

Find out more

Want to find our more about the Cumbria Rebuild Site? Head to www.rebuildsite.co.uk

April 20 2023

Workington Paperboard Mill – Biomass combined heat & power

admin

Our Story

Holmen Iggesund’s Workington Mill is an integrated pulp and paperboard mill. The industry is energy intensive and the mill at Workington was reliant on fossil fuels. Holmen Iggesund invested in a biomass combined heat and power plant for the primary purpose of being able to run its paperboard mill on renewable energy.

The Challenges

The project proved to be a huge commercial and capital undertaking for the site so visiting and bench marking other sites ahead of the investment and construction was essential. The project received support through the Renewable Obligation now shut and although the main Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) scheme has been grandfathered, the availability of some of the “embedded benefits” cannot be taken as guaranteed.

Year-by-year, there is the chance that incentives aimed at encouraging the adoption of a green technology schemes gets adapted at short notice with consequent loss of expected revenues. Keeping track of government policy and incentives is therefore important.

Our Solution

Overnight the mill switched its energy supply from fossil natural gas to biomass, and thereby reduced its fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions by 190,000 tonnes a year, the equivalent to the annual emissions of over 10,000 homes. As part of a truly circular economy, the biomass fuel is sourced from the UK from sustainably managed forests. These forestry operations aim to yield the maximum quantity of rectangular planks from the growing trees to supply the sawn timber industry. Whatever is left over, industry co-products – wood shavings, bark and branches – we turn into their paperboard and bio-energy. Nothing goes to waste!

To supplement the biomass from forest residues, we worked with local farmers and landowners to grow and supply energy crops. Local farmers can sell biomass (SRC Willow) to the Workington Mill and we offered support with planting and harvesting. The paperboard produced at the mill is recyled to complete the circularity model.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CLICK HERE.

April 20 2023

Shed 1 Distillery: A carbon positive enterprise

admin

Our Story

We launched Shed 1 Distillery in October 2016, creating, distilling, bottling and marketing gin and running gin experiences whilst researching and implementing sustainability initiatives.

Our business is based in a small rented building making it hard to implement energy saving measures such as solar panels or even switching to a greener energy supplier.

The Challenge

Net zero and all the other terms associated with net zero can be confusing for a micro or small business. Many businesses are put off by the confusing nature of these terms and the perception that they are expensive and time consuming.

In November 2019 we contacted Green Small Business who talked us through our business plan and equipped us with the tools and measures we needed to meet our own sustainability targets via a detailed Environmental Plan.

Our Solution

Through the guidance of Green Small Business we’ve managed to unlock a number of sustainability-related grants which has enabled us to implement a variety of sustainability initiatives. These have ranged from installing a closed loop cooling system and investing in a cardboard shredder, to making gin jelly marmalade from surplus fresh citrus fruit.

We also offset the journeys made by our botanicals, bottles, deliveries and waste through the climate action platform Ecologi, a monthly subscription service. The service allows you to input how much travel your employees do and then you can offset their footprint. Each month, trees are planted, plus we are supporting carbon and humanitarian projects.

We also buy trees for every order placed online. This way, we could start making a difference at once rather than pay money for an audit. The Ecologi website is incredibly visual and informative, so you can see exactly what your money is doing. We, and our customers, can regularly check to see how our forest is growing.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CLICK HERE.

April 20 2023

Dark Skies Cumbria

admin

Our Story

Cumbria has some of the darkest skies in the UK – making it one of the few places in the country where the awe-inspiring Milky Way is still visible. Dark skies not only reveal the phenomenal wonder of the stars but they are also critical for the health of nocturnal wildlife.

Sadly, light pollution in Cumbria is growing year on year. Traditional streetlights are one of the causes of increasing light pollution, along with consuming energy which also contributes to our carbon footprint.

The initiative arose with the aim to reduce light pollution in Cumbria, in collaboration with Cumbria County Council, Friends of the Lake District and Thorn Lighting UK Ltd.

Our Solution

In partnership with Cumbria County Council, we will be piloting NightTune LED street lights at five locations in Alston, Warcop, Dent, Glenridding and Ambleside, where lighting was due to be upgraded and/or is situated in a sensitive location. Each site has been selected to cover a diversity of communities and landscape settings, in areas bidding for Dark Skies landscape status nationally – the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales national parks and North Pennines AONB.

The lanterns will emit a blend of white and amber light which can be automatically adjusted to suit the time of night and level of traffic on the road. Visibility for drivers and pedestrians is not affected by the blended light colour. The lanterns deliver light focused at ground level preventing light pollution up into the night sky with no visibility of the LED, reducing any potential for glare.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CLICK HERE.

April 20 2023

Kingmoor Park Solar Farm

admin

Our Story

Kingmoor Park is an Enterprise Zone in Carlisle, home to over 100 businesses. The 400-acre site has over 2 million sqft of industrial, office and warehouse space ranging from 500 sqft to 105,000 sqft, and 175 acres of development land.

The aim was to reduce the park’s reliance on non-renewable energy and ensure a consistent supply of energy as the site grows. Working with a specialist Solar Maintenance Services, an on-site tenant of Kingmoor Park, we developed a solution to install a 4-acre solar farm.

Our Solution

A 1MW solar array was successfully installed across 4 acres of farmland in February 2020. The solar array supplies 877 kWh of electricity per year, which is the equivalent of up to 20% of Kingmoor Park’s electricity needs, saving up to 250 tonnes of C02 per year and would significantly reduce the need to rely non-renewable sources.

Our future plans include a further 2.5MW of solar which will provide around 3,000,000 kWh of electricity equivalent to 75% of Kingmoor’s electricity needs.

To further increase on-site consumption of the solar energy, we purchased an electric van with further electric vehicles and charge points to be added in the near future.

The data we collected from the first phase of the solar development has been helpful in proving the success of the scheme and in shaping the development of the second phase of the project.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CLICK HERE.

April 18 2023

Home Grown Here

admin

Our Story

Home Grown Here was formed in September 2021 as part of Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership’s ambitious target to make Cumbria Carbon neutral by 2037 and is funded by the National Lottery Climate Change Fund until 2025.

Home Grown Here is a grower owner co-operative of local producers and a singly marketplace for high-quality, Cumbrian-grown fruit and vegetables, both organic and conventionally grown. It allows local growers to trade directly with Cumbria-based wholesalers, retailers, restaurants, hotels, cafes, farm shops, and veg box schemes.

We aim to transform the local food system and supply chain by providing local families and businesses with fresh fruit and vegetables year-round in line with seasonal availability, selling only against orders and thereby reducing waste in the supply chain.

Our goal is to scale-up veg and fruit production across Cumbria to bring benefits for the county’s health and rural economy, reducing reliance on imports and helping to address climate change. Keeping Cumbria’s home-grown produce here in the county reduces food miles, helps us eat seasonally and is brilliant for Cumbria’s carbon footprint.

Our Solution

To its growers, Home Grown Here offers a support package of horticultural advice, skills-sharing and networking opportunities, access to investment and grants through working together, an equipment/machinery share scheme, bulk purchasing of seed/plants/soil-testing, access to a seasonal picking team and personalised branding for each farm as part of the generic Home Grown Here brand.

But most importantly, we have created a local route to market for the crops that are being grown. The farmers and growers involved in Home Grown Here are part of it because it diversified their income and increases their financial resiliance through and beyond the Agricultural Transition period 2021-2024 (the shift in UK farming from Government subsidy to stand alone financial viability).

It also augments and enhances other aspects of their day-to-day farming practices (i.e., as part of a rotation) and it contributes to wider environmental goals, such as addressing climate change.

Given the success our grower co-operative model has had across Cheshire, we’ve started thinking about franchising this in other counties or support the set-up of a similar model, aiming to create a vast local produce marketplace.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CLICK HERE.