Energy Centres UK
We have been and are currently involved in the design and building of several energy centres in Yorkshire and beyond. These include projects in Leeds, Sheffield and even Nottingham.
The importance of energy centres cannot be overstated as they generate an efficient supply of heat to a community which replaces the need for individual boilers in each building. This is, of course, particularly useful to businesses and large facilities such as hospitals, universities and factories which require more energy than residential properties.
Energy centres contain a Combined Heat & Power plant (CHP) fuelled by natural gas and the greater the demand for heat the greater the amount of energy they can generate which in turn reduces the amount of power drawn from the national grid.
They are designed in a way that is intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions which are natural gases discharged through human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels. These strengthen the greenhouse effect which is the process that occurs when gases in the Earth’s atmosphere trap the sun’s heat.
This, of course, causes climate change and it is why reducing greenhouse gas emissions is so important. Most emissions are carbon dioxide, produced by planes, cars and factories and other means of producing power.
Our Saxton Gardens energy centre, completed in 2019, was part of a project by Leeds City Council in partnership with Vital Energi to help improve the air quality in the city and reduce carbon emissions by 11,000 tonnes per year.
The energy centre is also a part of the Leeds PIPES Network, a £35m investment from Leeds City Council that we worked on connecting 1,983 properties and businesses around the city centre with the provision of low carbon heat and hot water captured from the Leeds Recycling Energy Recovery Facility (RERF) in Cross Green.
Our work in Sheffield on the “Transformer” was on behalf of Vital Energi too, this time designing a site to provide efficient energy to the city’s biggest university. Completed last year, the Transformer generates consistent and continuous power for the Western Bank area of the University campus.
The centre has helped to reduce the university’s carbon emissions should the district energy network suffer a major failure. When this has occurred prior to the Transformer’s construction, expensive diesel boilers have been used as a back-up but the environmental impact of these is huge. By using its own CHP and network, the Transformer reduces both costs and carbon footprint.
It was built using materials chosen to replicate the contrast seen with the nearby arts tower connecting the two buildings visually and contributing to Sheffield’s growingly innovative architecture.
Our work on energy centres is still ongoing with progress being made onsite at multiple sites including the construction of a groundbreaking 16.5M new energy centre for Muntons, the UK’s leading supplier of malts and malted ingredients, based in Stowmarket. Upon completion, the site will provide almost all steam, heat and electricity decarbonising 100,000,000 kWh of heat demand each year. This is equivalent to decarbonising the heat of more than 8,000 homes.
Another project progressing well is the erection of a new building at the Nottingham City Hospital, designed to replace the aging coal fired equipment that is currently supplying the campus. The energy centre will utilise the combined Heat and Power generation, lowering the hospitals emissions, and is part of a bigger District Heating scheme that will lower the site’s carbon footprint by using more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly technologies.
Our project at St James Hospital is similar to this and work has recently begun onsite there.