Essex County Council misses chance for 'exemplar' carbon neutral building
One of the council’s major visitor centres is looking to reduce its CO2 footprint
Essex County Council has missed an opportunity to create an “exemplar” for totally carbon neutral buildings, opposition councillors have said.
One of Essex County Council’s major visitor centres is looking to reduce its CO2 footprint with a new heating system at The Discovery Centre, in Great Notley Country Park in Braintree.
It is part of an £6.2million award given to Essex County Council by the Government for five projects across a range of council-managed buildings.
Air source heat pumps, solar panels and battery storage will be installed in two of the highest energy consuming sites managed by the council, in addition to the installation of air source heat pump at Great Notley Country Park.
Double glazing and solar panels will also be installed at a range of core sites and schools to contribute to the decarbonisation of the council estate.
An air source heat pump system, which works much like a fridge operating in reverse, can help to lower a building’s carbon footprint as it uses a renewable, natural source of heat – air.
But they need a power source, usually electricity, so there will still be some resulting CO2 emissions.
The planning application comes ahead of an anticipated Government proposal next month that will likely set a deadline for the end of gas boilers meaning over next 15 to 20 years more than 80 per cent of British homes will need to switch to a new heating system.
The Essex Climate Change Commission has set out its own ambitious target for every one of the nearly 700,000 households in Essex replacing its gas boiler by 2050.
Councillor James Abbott (Green Party, Silver End and Cressing) said:
“I think Great Notley Country Park could be what’s called an exemplar – a one off if you like that demonstrates technology.”
There had been plans a single large 1.5MW wind turbine at the centre providing the electricity requirements for over 800 homes but was cancelled due to funding concerns.
Now a more ambitious carbon-neutral set up at the centre given the quickening environmental urgency, would have been welcomed he said.
Cllr Abbott added:
“They could have gone for something bigger and a building that is totally carbon neutral.
“To make it carbon neutral you need to be generating electricity in other ways and the two other are wind and probably battery solar.
“Solar is a good option and then you have the increasingly efficient technology in battery storage.
“It could be a building which has cutting edge technology to prove you can have an entire building of that scale running carbon neutrally.”
In conclusion a planning application report said:
“Replacement of the existing outdated heating system with a new renewable form will bring real benefits in reducing the overall carbon footprint of the building, which in turn reduces the impact on the natural surroundings of this site.”
A spokesperson for Essex County Council said:
“The air source heat pump at Great Notley Country Park is part of a wider programme to reduce carbon by removing gas usage across Essex County Council’s sites.
“As the project is still at planning stage, final costs are still to be agreed but the project will be partly funded by a Public Sector Decarbonisation Fund grant worth approximately £165,000.
“The air source heat pump will draw power from the large solar installation on site, which to date has generated over 95,000kWh of energy, enough to offset the whole site’s usage for a year.
“Other initiatives at Great Notley have included LED lighting, solar panels and grey water harvesting with reed bed filtration. It is predicted that the site itself will be carbon neutral for periods of the year.”