We've taken a socially responsible approach to our energy efficiency in the past and already have a strong infrastructure of sustainable facilities to build upon.
After receiving more than £21m of funding from the Government’s Green Heat Network Fund (GHNF), 快播视频 began constructing a new Net Zero Energy Centre in late 2024. The funding was matched by the University to develop a new energy centre, which will reduce the use of gas on campus by over 90%. The existing heat network will also be extended to cover the majority of the buildings on campus. Equipped with a 7MW Air-Source Heat Pump array, the new energy centre is projected to launch in 2027 and will generate over 39 Gigawatt hours (GWh) of low-carbon heat.
Net Zero Energy Project
Heat pump technology utilises the condensation cycle, which extract heat from the sources and transfer that to a medium – the term “Air source heat pump” means that heat is extracted from atmospheric air.
Contrary to a conventional boiler, heat pumps are electrically driven, instead of relying on the combustion of fuel. A heat pump can be 3 times more efficient than a conventional gas boiler.
The fact that heat pumps are electrically driven allows them to utilise renewable energy generation, such as wind and solar PV. The modulating feature of heating provision also demonstrates potential in demand response management, where the operation of the heat pump can be adjusted based on the availability of renewable energy sources.
The University recently completed construction on a solar PV farm on the University’s land, close to our wind turbine. The 11 MW Solar Farm was carefully installed with consideration for biodiversity and includes an important agrivoltaics field demonstrator – which will be used to explore how people might be able to use the same land for both solar electricity and agricultural production.
Generating between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000 kWh of electricity and catering for around 14% of the University's electricity consumption each year, the wind turbine has produced enough electricity to power over 1200 homes for a year.
BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) is a sustainability assessment method that is used to masterplan buildings. As part of our BREEAM accreditation, a number of buildings on campus are equipped with rooftop solar panels to offset the building electricity usage directly.
