Archive for Energy efficiency
Linacre College – Oxford, United Kingdom.
Posted by: | CommentsThe Abraham building with 23 study rooms, extra facilities for the students and an administration wing of Linacre College won the “green building of the year award”. Expected reductions were: 25% on gas use, 25% on electricity use, 36% on water consumption and 31% on CO2 emission. Energy saving measures are: high thermal mass, high insulation, heat recovery and passive stack ventilation. Extra costs are around 3.6%.
Water quality is monitored frequently in Finland in accordance with the national and regional programmes and under environmental permits. The national programme is based on monitoring networks of rivers, lakes and coastal waters. Several times annually, samples from about 550 sampling sites are analyzed for 20 – 40 water quality variables. In addition, there are thousands of sampling sites under regional and local monitoring programmes. The results of the monitoring and control activities are stored in the national database maintained by the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE). There are now more than 21 million records database since the 1960s. In the classification done for 2000 – 2003, data from 5370 lake sites, 3900 river sites and 1100 sea sites were used. In this period 2.6 million water quality records were entered into the database.
Real time data flow – Zero Tolerance in Liverpool
Posted by: | CommentsThe City of Liverpool has been working hard to ensure that it is up to speed in emission reduction as stated in the Kyoto Protocol and the Energy White Paper. The City Council realised that estimated consumption, costs and emissions based on paper billing systems was no longer valid. Its first step has been the installation of Automated Meter Reading (AMR) equipment across its entire estate providing half hourly consumption and emissions data on its entire utility portfolio. The information provided so far has had immediate effect providing real management information pinpointing exactly where to target scarce resources such as electricity, oil or gas. The end result will be that all data will be available 24/7 to all 500 utility accounts in a variety of displays and analyses in order to allow full data control and protection from the energy market risks.
Water and Energy Savings Campaign in Gijon’s Hotels
Posted by: | CommentsThe aim of the Water and Energy Savings Campaign is reducing water and energy consumption in Hotels. As a result, the City of Gijón aims to reduce consumption of fossil fuel energy sources such as coal, oil and natural gas and at the same time optimize their usage and contribute to the protection of the environment.
The awareness campaign is composed of three elements. A folder with general recommendations for saving water and energy; a notice recommending the reutilization of towels; and a card to avoid the daily washing of bed linen, in the case of a guest staying for several days. These 3 elements have been distributed among all city’s hotels and are ought to be placed in each of their rooms.
A guide to energy saving and efficiency will shortly be made available containing solutions that are simple, easy to implement in which their investments costs are immediately recovered. These solutions for energy and water saving will allow energy saving campaigns to be very well welcome and quickly implemented in the city’s hotels.
The Oriketo heating station – Finland’s largest biofuel-fired heating station
Posted by: | CommentsTurku Energia Ltd. (joint-stock power company owned by the City of Turku) has planned and built a biomass plant in Oriketo, the first one in Turku fired with biofuels. The plant, which was operational in 2001, has a biofuel-fired heating station (40 MW) and condensing plants (12 MW). With the new heating station, Turku Energia has been able to replace part of the district heat generated by fossil fuels and therefore secure the heat supply to Turku’s inhabitants in a favourable and environmental friendly way.
This plant been a very profitably investment. The operation of the station and the supply and transport of fuels offered about 20 new jobs. It produces approximately 300 GWh district heat every year, increasing the share of bioenergy in district heating up to 20% and compensating in that way the use of charcoal in Turku region. At an annual level, CO2 emissions are reduced by about 90.000 t, SO2 emissions by about 300 t and NO emissions by about 70 t.
Environmental Management System in Oldham
Posted by: | CommentsThe Council is in the process of implementing an Environmental Management System, which will be accredited to the ISO 14001 standard. The aim is to improve the environmental performance of the organisation and identify cost savings. The process is funded by Oldham Council under its Invest to Save Program. Council operations are being audited, and practical, economic measures are being implemented to reduce our negative effects and the local and global environment, Once certification has been achieved, Council operations will continue to be monitored to ensure continuous improvements. Although the project is still ongoing, there have already been successes with regard to waste reduction.
Energy Management in Municipal Public Buildings in Helsinki
Posted by: | CommentsIntroduction The City of Helsinki has a long tradition on energy management in municipal operations, both in terms of targets for specific heat and electricity consumption of the municipality and in terms of carrying out energy audits, energy monitoring, other technical measures and communication actions for energy conservation and savings. Objectives and target audience In [...]
Southampton District Energy Scheme
Posted by: | CommentsThe Southampton District Energy Scheme (SDES) provides electrical power, hot water for central heating, and chilled water for air conditioning to over 40 commercial customers and hundreds of households in the city centre. SDES uses 85% energy efficient CHP (Combined Heating Power) and 15% geothermal energy. This scheme achieves a reduction in CO2 emissions of 11,000 tonnes a year and reduces the costs for its customers. This initiative has been possible due to the partnership between Utilicom, a private energy supplier who delivers and runs the scheme, and Southampton City Council (SCC), who actively encourage new and existing buildings to connect to the scheme.
Intelligent and energy efficient buildings (both refurbishment and new build)
Posted by: | CommentsThe building sector is responsible for more than 30 percent of carbon dioxide emissions and more than 45 percent of energy consumption. Therefore, it is imperative to pay attention to the construction of new buildings or the refurbishment of old ones. Amaroussion’s municipality participates in a European project named Sec-Bench in the context of which there has being a registration of all buildings as far as it concerns the current situation with regards to energy. Amaroussion’s municipality participates in a national project named ‘SAVING’ which is about energy efficient interventions in municipal buildings. In addition, within the context of EU-funded projects, the municipality of Amaroussion implemented the installation of a photovoltaic system in selected municipal buildings. Paying attention to the energy side of waste cycle there is a recycling system in all municipal buildings. Furthermore, there have been energy investments in schools and other public buildings for substituting conventional fuels with natural gas: installation of natural gas in all the Municipal school units (29 in total) during the 1st phase and installation of natural gas in special needs school for children, in a technical institution and in municipal buildings such as the Town Hall, the Municipal Library and the Municipal owned gym named “Spyros Louis”. Since June 2005 there has been a system implemented to control the electric energy consumption and the heating fuel consumption in the Town Hall and other municipal buildings such as the municipal swimming pool and five school units.
Energy efficiency (practical projects)
Posted by: | CommentsThe practical projects of Amaroussion’s municipality with regards to the field of energy efficiency concern the installation of natural gas in the Municipal swimming pool, and in Municipal school units and the participation in co-funded projects either from the European Commission or nationally aiming at the constant improvement of the Municipality’s energy efficiency. Amaroussion’s activities -in the context of EMAS and specifically in the field of energy efficiency -can be summarised in the following: application of a recycling system in the Municipal Buildings, control of the heating fuel consumption in the Town Hall, briefing of the personnel and residents of the city, policy mapping out of green supplies and energy efficiency procurements, policy mapping out for the management of urban waste. Furthermore, it is in process to curry out a study for recording the energy consumed from the municipal network of lighting aiming at upgrading it and at applying energy efficient measures such as the gradual replacement of sodium lamps of the municipal lighting network.
