Low Carbon Energy Feasibility Study

Transcription

1 Low Carbon Energy Feasibility Study For Plot 2a Hawarden Business Park

2 QA Document History Issue Issue 1 Date December 2017 Purpose Feasibility Created by Gareth Webb Signature Approvals Name Craig Cleary Title Director Signature Date of Issue December 2017 Version 1 Distribution Document Issue Name Organisation Role For Information Simon Isherwood Pochin Client Futureserv Ltd enquiries@futureserv.co.uk

3 Contents Section 1 Introduction... 4 Section 2 Renewable Technology Options... 5 Section 3 Conclusions... 7

4 Section 1 Introduction Futureserv Consulting Engineers have been appointed by Hawarden Business Park Limited to produce a Low Carbon Energy Study for a new build commercial development at their Business Park located in Hawarden, rth Wales. The site is brownfield in nature and located on a mature business park located around 10 miles South West of Chester and immediately adjacent to Hawarden Airfield. energy supply on-site expect where this cannot be provided for justifiable reasons. In addition to these requirements, the development is required to achieve BREEAM Very Good rating. The aim is for the development proposals to minimise carbon dioxide emissions and the impacts of climate change on the environment, economy and quality of life by adhering to the following hierarchy: 1. Reducing the need for energy consumption; 2. Using energy as efficiently as possible; 3. Using renewable and low carbon energy where possible; The design approach in respect to minimising energy consumption from the development would align with the best practise guidelines being adopted in the Core Strategies Policy, necessitating Lean, Clean and Green energy savings to be considered sequentially. The lean savings which are measures to improve the baseline energy performance and would typically mean improvements in the thermal performance of the buildings envelope ie; fabric improvements, glazing replacement/upgrade. This can also include high efficiency M&E equipment including; inverter driven pump and fan motors, high efficiency boilers, high efficiency lighting (LED) and lighting control systems. The building currently proposed has been designed by Austin Smith Lord Architects and is arranged within a two-storey building containing offices, meeting rooms, welfare facilities and storage areas. As part of the development s planning requirements a target to achieve compliance with the Policy EWP3 of the Flintshire UDP seeks 10% renewable The clean savings are measures that reduce carbon dioxide emissions as compared the standard design approach but rely an element of non-renewable energy consumption. The technologies that could be considered here would be combined heat and power (CHP) and air source heat pumps (ASHP). The green savings are measures that provide energy from wholly renewable sources. Examples of the technologies that fall within this category are solar

5 thermal for heating and hot water, solar photo-voltaic (PV), wind power and biomass. Roof mounted PV panels cannot be installed due to the potential conflict with the adjacent airfield and its primary tenant. This is to ensure the risk to air traffic is avoided. The analysis indicates that all lean savings can be implemented at Plot 2a together with the clean savings in the form of ASHP s. Section 2 Renewable Technology Options All currently acknowledged, and commercially available technologies that may be implemented on a site wide basis or on an individual building basis have been considered and assessed with the conclusions summarised below; Air Source Heat Pumps Air source heat pumps provide a robust solution for using renewable energy taken from ambient air to heat a building in the winter. The use of air source heat pumps in order to provide heating to the development would reduce the reliance on fossil fuel to serve the buildings and work with the renewable energy generated by the proposed PV systems. The output water temperatures from air source heat pumps should be carefully considered in terms of the proposed space heating system and the ability to provide sufficient temperature in the domestic hot water storage calorifier, however we do Recommend the implementation of a suitably sized Air Source Heat Pump. Solar Photovoltaic Panels The option to utilise roof mounted or Building Integrated Photovoltaic panels to generate electrical energy is now a mature renewable energy technology which benefits from the current Feed in Tariff arrangement. The development has a large extent of roof area that could be utilised to locate an array of PV panels. However, roof mounted PV panels cannot be installed due to the potential conflict with the adjacent airfield and its primary tenant. This is to ensure the risk to air traffic is avoided. The use of PV technology on this project is therefore Discounted on this basis. Combined Heat and Power (CHP) On-site generation of electricity and the utilisation of waste heat from this process within a building can create a beneficial arrangement whereby the transmission losses of grid supplied electricity can be omitted. The use of CHP requires a year-round steady and continuous demand for heat which on a commercial sector development would not be available. CHP systems need to operate for a minimum of 4500 hrs/yr, and preferably 7500 hrs/yr or about hours per day to be economic. The best CHP systems achieve 95% availability. General boilers are usually somewhat oversized, however a CHP system needs to be accurately sized to match the demand profile of the buildings.

6 Shorter payback periods, of around 5 years, can only be achieved where there is a significant year-round demand for heating and hot water, e.g. in hospitals, hotels or swimming pools. The buildings energy profiles, and lack of a constant heat demand reduces the practicality and viability of CHP and for this reason this technology has been Discounted. Wind Turbines Wind energy can be an effective method of renewable power generation and turbines can produce Renewable electrical energy with outputs ranging from watts to megawatts. Locations on the sides of hills generally experience poorer yields for electricity output from small and medium scale wind turbines, due to obstructions and variations in local topography. Also taking into account the visual impact and unwanted noise in an environment such as this can create significant Planning Authority challenges. Wind Turbines cannot be installed due to the conflict with the adjacent airfield and its primary tenant. This is to ensure the risk to air traffic is avoided. For these reasons the use of wind turbines have been Discounted from inclusion at this development. Biomass Some success on projects has been made with the implementation of wood fuelled energy equipment forming a Carbon Neutral heat source however these projects have tended to be light density Sub-Urban or occasionally rural in their location, but with good transport links. Biomass fuels sourced and processed from sustainable sources within 25 miles of the biomass plant can be regarded as carbon neutral and hence the fuel has potential to carry little carbon burden. However, the potential air quality issues, space requirements for fuel stores, ongoing maintenance and potential delivery issues reduces the opportunity to take advantage of a Biomass solution for this development. Therefore, this technology has been Discounted for this site. Solar Thermal Collectors The use of flat plate & evacuated tube thermal panels has been identified as a potential method of harnessing renewable solar energy by preheating domestic hot water provision. The availability of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) may further improve the financial viability for this technology. The development has a large extent of roof area that could be utilised to locate these panels. However, roof mounted panels cannot be installed due to the potential conflict with the adjacent airfield and its primary tenant. This is to ensure the risk to air traffic is avoided. The use of this technology on this project is therefore Discounted on this basis.

7 Section 3 Conclusions This energy study has been written to clarify the client s requirements to review the feasibility of the available renewable energy technologies with the overriding aspiration of reducing net import energy requirements. The study highlights many of the feasible renewable technologies available on a commercial scale and reflects upon which of these technologies are most suitable. The report concludes that only some of the LZC options would be viable. Due to the suitability of these proposed systems in their alignment with the building energy uses, the following technologies and energy reduction measures are proposed for the development; Sustainable Design Option Biomass boiler Ground source heat pumps Air source heat pumps Solar water heating Photovoltaic cells Wind Turbines Biomass Fuelled Combined heat and power plant Gas Fuelled Combined heat and power plant Passive measures (thermal fabric improvements to walls, floors, roof, glazing) & reduced air permeability LED Lighting Heat Recovery Ventilation Suitability for site