Delivering practical responses Energy efficiency and supply

Sustainable communities and their energy supply

A sustainable community of the future will have access to low and zero carbon energy supplies and will be living in and using buildings that are designed to maximise efficiencies, consequently reducing their demand for energy supplies.

 

To achieve this vision, sustainable communities practitioners should be seeking to deliver solutions now, in advance of legislative and regulatory changes that are coming forward.

In a recent speech, Prime Minister Gordon Brown stated:

"The EU view is that to stand a chance of keeping the temperature increase below the 2 degrees centigrade target, and as part of a multilateral agreement, emissions from industrialised countries like Britain should be cut by 60-80% by 2050... evidence now suggests that as part of an international agreement developed countries may have to reduce their emissions by up to 80%. So we will put this evidence to the Committee on Climate Change, ask it to advise us as it considers the first three five-year budgets on whether our own domestic target should be tightened up to 80%."

Currently the Energy White Paper (2003) sets a target to reduce CO2 emissions by 60% by 2050. However, in 2004 only 2.7% of the UK’s electricity was generated by renewable sources and in 2006 this figure had risen to just 4.6% (BERR, 2007).

In 2006, the largest generators of renewable energy in the UK are hydro plants (25%), landfill gas (24%) and wind (23%) (BERR, 2007).

Energy efficiency

Energy efficiency reduces the need to both heat and cool buildings throughout their lifetime, and standards and regulations are driving this agenda forward.

Examples of ways in which energy efficiency can be achieved include:

• Insulation
• Orientation
• Shading
• Natural ventilation
• Natural lighting
• Provision of intelligent metering
• Building insulation
• Use of energy efficient appliances (EU energy labelling)
   

Energy efficiency measures should not be implemented in isolation but combined with measures to influence behaviour and lifestyles to avoid the rebound effect.

Energy supply

Cleaner supplies of electricity can come from both the national network (the National Grid) or alternatively from decentralised sources that generate and supply energy at a local level.

As large power stations are located away from towns and cities, they have to discard waste heat, generated in production. This is done using cooling towers, cooling water, and also through the energy’s transportation along power lines.

A decentralised energy supply system on the other hand has the benefit of not requiring the transportation of electricity long distances and, because power can be produced locally, the heat, which would otherwise be wasted, can be captured and used.

Low-carbon energy solutions that can be delivered using decentralised systems include:

Such energy solutions can also be delivered to service the National Grid with the addition of wave and tidal power. Pelamis, on the Orkney Islands in Scotland offers an example of this developing technology. Further details can be found at BERR, the website for the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.