Renewables slump puts focus on energy efficiency

HVCA, remewable energy
The big push has to be energy efficiency — Bob Shelley.

The most recent energy figures make pretty grim reading for renewables — but this makes the industry’s focus on energy efficiency even more important, says Bob Shelley.

The contribution of renewables to the country’s overall energy consumption rose last year — by 0.3%. It now accounts for 3.3% of all energy used in the UK.

In other words, not a lot.

These latest figures released by the Department for Energy & Climate Change (DECC) do at least show that renewable energy is growing, but the pace is worryingly slow. With power companies reported to be using 7% more coal last year as they look to squeeze the last bit of output from ageing power stations, the impact on carbon emissions is not good.

Coal and gas still accounted for 82% of our electricity generation in the first quarter of 2011, with nuclear accounting for most of the rest.

There is a pattern here that should help the building-services engineering sector decide where best to focus its efforts. We must continue to support the roll out of renewables, but growth in small scale, local projects is very small. The big push has to be energy efficiency to reduce our dependence on coal, gas and oil.

Security

Gas and electricity prices are predicted to rise by anything between 50 and 80% over the next 10 years. Also, the Government says our energy demand will increase by 80% by 2030 — although some in the energy industry believe it could be as much as 300%. With 25% of our generating capacity for electricity about to be decommissioned (nuclear), we are facing a potentially catastrophic energy security problem, which will also contribute to rising costs.

Energy cost and security, more than any lofty ‘green’ ambitions, will help to kickstart the massive programme of building retrofits needed to lower the carbon footprint of our existing commercial building stock — about 25 million structures.

40% of the country’s CO2 emissions come from buildings, and 60% of the commercial building stock that will still be in use in 2050 is already built. Assuming the ‘new’ 40% meets increasingly stringent new-build standards, it is clear, therefore, where the challenge lies as we seek to cut carbon emissions by 80% over the next four decades.

The economics of refurbishment have always been undervalued, and the availability of funding support for the right solutions through the Green Deal makes the case for energy retrofits even more persuasive. However, to do this well we will need good-quality and accurate energy-performance data about each building we tackle. A piecemeal, scattergun approach will not work; we must be very targeted in our efforts.

Installing sensors throughout a building is a good first step, and the wider use of smart meters will also help to build up a comprehensive picture of how a building is performing. Increasing the use of Display Energy Certificates (DECs), as urged by the UK Green Building Council, will help both end users and their retrofit teams analyse where all the energy is going.

Having established the areas in most need of energy-efficiency upgrades, the refurbishment work should start with building ‘fabric’ improvements, such as insulation, draught proofing and glazing. This will have an immediate impact on energy demand. The next step should be to examine what controls are in the building, how they are set up and if they are easy to use.

Many end users often set their heating too high, for example, and there have been many cases where new, energy-saving heat pumps have been turned up so high that their auxiliary immersion heating is running continually. This means consumer electricity bills have actually gone up! There is plenty of low-hanging fruit like this that can be picked off first.

Fabric

Improving the fabric will create a more airtight building with less opportunity for expensive heat to escape. However, this also means there is a requirement for good ventilation. Many refurbished buildings are now adopting mechanical-ventilation systems with heat recovery (MVHR). These systems capture and reuse heat that would otherwise be expelled from the building, and this recovered energy offsets the carbon impact of the electricity needed to power the ventilation fans.

These first steps will minimise energy demand, which allows the building operator to consider smaller-capacity and ,therefore, less-expensive, heating and air-conditioning systems. Existing boilers, chillers, ventilation plant and lighting systems can simply be upgraded or re-commissioned to improve their performance.

Finance is the critical element in all of this, so being targeted and aiming low to start with is the most prudent approach. Building owners will become bolder as they start to see the savings coming through so those early, basic energy-saving measures will eventually lead to the more ambitious renewable projects we all want to see. But first things first.

Bob Shelley was elected president of the Heating & Ventilating Contractors’ Association (HVCA) in July 2011 and is also senior project manager at Argent FM.

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