Environment Agency Red Kite House

Fri, 19 May 2006 09:38:34 -0700

Wallingford, Oxfordshire, UK

Background:
The Environment Agency recognise that sustainable construction can reduce our demand on natural resources, boost the local economy and provide a better environment for people to live and work.

Spitalfields Bishops Square

Thu, 18 May 2006 09:01:01 -0700

London, UK

Background
Bishops Square, developed by Hammerson plc and the Corporation of London, was designed by award winning architects Foster and Partners. The project partners worked with solarcentury, who provided specialised PV knowledge and design expertise to develop an optimal, cost effective solution for the new offices. The PV replaced louvres that were included in the original design, to provide the added benefit of shading to the plant deck area. The offices are to be let to international law firm Allen and Overy who will benefit from a considerable reduction in their energy bills as a result of the PV installation.

Case Studies

Thu, 18 May 2006 03:34:48 -0700

Read the following Technical Case Studies to find out how renewables energy systems can be incorporated into your development.

Manchester College of Arts and Technology (MANCAT)

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 06:14:09 -0700

Manchester, UK

Background

Manchester College of Arts and Technology (MANCAT) have incorporated pioneering design and building innovation in their brand new North Manchester Sixth Form Centre in the Harpurhey area of the city. The new building is a redevelopment of a brownfield site, which used to house the public baths. In a major project the original Grade 2 listed Victorian building has been retained and restored, whilst a futuristic extension has been added, to create a sixth form college, library and exhibition hall incorporating the latest building integrated solar technology.

Croydon Centrale

Tue, 04 Apr 2006 06:17:41 -0700

Croydon, London, UK

The integration of solar photovoltaics and a wind turbine into the plant deck on the top floor of the Croydon Centrale shopping centre, was a retrofit solution. The PV and wind turbine are located above the car park and are visible to the public using the centre.

The solar photovoltaic (PV) array installed onto the plant deck on is made up of a total of 45 Sharp 80W modules supplied by solarcentury (although one of which is not electrically connected). The modules cover a total area of 28.6m2 and are capable of producing a total peak DC power of 3.52 kilowatts under Standard Test conditions (STC). The arrays will provide approximately 1,765 kilowatt hours of energy each year.

Willow Lane, Mitcham

Tue, 04 Apr 2006 05:25:52 -0700

Mitcham, Surrey, UK

The project consisted of the installation of a solar PV system onto the profiled steel sheet roof of a new business park development in Mitcham, South London, and electrical connection into the existing system.

The solar photovoltaic (PV) array installed onto the Willow Lane Development is made up of a total of 28 Sanyo 190W PV modules supplied by solarcentury. The array covers a total area of 33m² and is capable of producing a total peak DC power of 5.32 kilowatts under Standard Test Conditions (STC). The estimated annual energy yield for the array is 4,700 kilowatt hours (units of electricity).

As more detailed case study can be found in First Implementation under The Merton Rule

Date commissioned

2005.06.22

Technology

Solar PV

Background

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 08:52:51 -0800

1. BACKGROUND

1.1. Every borough has a policy that “encourages” the use of renewable energy in new developments – but simple encouragement rarely delivers results. Climate change is a major threat to the security and well-being of people around the globe, and protecting the environment for future generations is of paramount concern. In order to combat this threat there needs to be a change in the collective approach from the “cottage industry” to a fully mobilized mindset. There are four key rationales behind Merton’s UDP (and the revised LDF) renewable energy policy:

As a Global to Local initiative for helping the UK to meet it’s Kyoto commitments and domestic CO2 reduction targets.
As a way of addressing fuel poverty, and making Merton businesses more competitive by lowering their monthly energy bills.
As a mechanism for expanding the renewable and sustainable energy economy.
As a way of raising the profile of renewable energy and combating climate change in Merton, and stimulating the debate on establishing secure and sustainable energy sources for the future.

1.2. Planning outline
The local planning paradigm is evolving from a prosaic, site-specific, discipline towards a more sophisticated spatial planning approach, and as such, boroughs will no longer produce that cumbersome and inflexible local rule book called the Unitary Development Plans every ten years – but will, by 2008, have a collection of updateable policy specific “pamphlets” that will collectively be known as the Local Development Framework.

Until then however, we are caught in something of a no-mans-land between the old and the new where planning authorities are engaged in the twin tasks of “getting their heads around” the LDF while simultaneously bolting together their final UDP’s – which in many cases will be obsolete almost as soon as the ink is dry on the paper.

It is inevitable that this no-mans-land syndrome, exacerbated by the advent of other national and regional planning influences, has created a degree of uncertainty and blurring between the UDP and LDF - but of course where there is uncertainty there is also opportunity, and this very uncertainty provided the incubator for the Merton 10% policy. Although it was written into its UDP, it is in character more of an LDF policy in as much as it is a planning response to new CO2 reduction targets, fluctuating fossil fuel prices, fuel poverty, technological innovation, ever changing Government policy initiatives, and the growing collective awareness of climate change in general.

1.3. Merton policy history
Merton first included the 10% policy in its UDP second deposit draft in 2000 (prior to the inception of the GLA). It read: “Require all new industrial, warehousing and office development outside conservation areas and above a threshold of 1,000 sqm to incorporate renewable power generation equipment to provide at least 10% of predicted energy requirements.”

There were two objections to the proposed policy.

The Government Office for London: “Government advice on renewable energy (PPG22) gives no specific guidance on the acceptability of policies requiring distributed renewable power generation. Such a policy should not be included, unless it has been demonstrated to be a reasonable and feasible requirement.”
Chartered Institute of Professional Development: “Criterion (vii – the relevant section of the policy) makes unacceptable and unjustified requirements. These are not land use matters and could impose significant additional costs on development. The policy should encourage rather than require.” - (which would in effect render the policy impotent – AH).

1.3.1. In her final report (August 2002) the ODPM Inspector’s Reasoning and Conclusions on this were as follows: “As the Council (Merton) rightly points out, PPG22 was published some years ago. Since then the Government has published its Climate Change Programme, which sets a target for 10% of the UK’s electricity requirements to be met from renewable energy sources by 2010. RPG9 advises authorities to use their development control and building regulations processes to seek to influence incorporation of appropriate renewable energy heating or power systems in the design of new developments.

There is therefore unambiguous national and regional support for the approach adopted in criterion (vii) of policy E13, which cannot be achieved under current Building Regulations alone. (this is the key legal issue for allowing the policy – AH). It would be up to the developers to demonstrate how the requirement would render a particular development unviable.”

1.3.2. In light of the Inspectors report Merton rewrote the policy with 3 amendments:

Substituting the word “expect” for the word “require”.
Making it for all non-residential development rather than exclusively commercial/industrial, and in so doing catching schools, hospitals, doctors surgeries and community buildings etc.
Removing the conservation area exemption. The simple premise being that aesthetics is clearly subordinate to protecting the environment (and buildings) for future generations. The increasing severity of storms across the UK as a result of climate change will disproportionately damage older buildings likely to be in conservation areas - aesthetics is therefore being sacrificed (for a period) in the interests of long term protection.

In September 2003 Merton submitted its final draft UDP to the ODPM Planning Department for final scrutiny. The revised policy (PE13) read: “All new non-residential development above a threshold of 1,000 sqm will be expected to incorporate renewable energy production equipment to provide at least 10% of predicted energy requirements.”

1.4. Targets and Thresholds
The 10% target and 1,000m2 figures emerged from a combination of financial appraisals that showed it would not be an undue burden for developers, and a concern for smaller businesses. The first borough to propose a residential threshold was Croydon and it settled on 10. Nearly all emulating boroughs have the same target and thresholds, though recently some have considered higher percentage targets.

1.5. Renewable energy definition
From the London Renewables Toolkit (2004)
(Claire Bonham-Carter, Faber Maunsell)

The following renewable energy technologies are described in detail (section 3.3-3.10 of the London Renewables Toolkit) and are used in the tables in Section 4.12 and 4.13 of the toolkit:

The Merton Rule

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 08:41:09 -0800

NOTE: This text needs updating
The most recent version of this briefing can currently be found attached to the bottom of this page

The Merton 10% (+) policy

Unitary Development Plan policy PE13
10%(+) Renewable energy policy briefing

In October 2003 Merton became the first local authority in the UK to include a policy in its Unitary Development Plan that requires new non-residential developments to generate at least 10% of their energy needs from renewable energy equipment such as solar panels and wind turbines.

The actual policy reads: “All new non-residential development above a threshold of 1,000 sqm will be expected to incorporate renewable energy production equipment to provide at least 10% of predicted energy requirements.”

CIS Solar Tower

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 07:50:45 -0800

Manchester, UK

Background

In June 2005, CIS became the world's first insurance company to launch a customer-led ethical policy to guide the ethical performance of its investments. In line with their aim to reconstitute the relationship between its business activities and nature, CIS asked solarcentury to 'develop a solution' for ventilated PV rain cladding for their HQ in Manchester. Arup then employed solarcentury to act as PV consultants, providing specialised PV knowledge and design. The project creates the largest commercial solar facade in Europe. It is also be one of the largest solar power systems in the UK, demonstrating that solar technology is a practical cladding application, which provides an extremely cost effective alternative to conventional cladding materials. The service core is covered in no less than 14 million one centimetre square, grey tesserae. The mosaic began to fail a mere six months after the building was completed. It has become a significant health and safety issue, and hence the need for it to be addressed. This project demonstrates how solar power can be easily incorporated into any building refurbishment.

The Eden Centre

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 07:14:18 -0800

Cornwall, UK

Background
The award winning Eden Project has been one of Cornwall’s most popular tourist attractions since it opened in March 2001. The remit of the site is to promote the understanding and responsible management of the relationship between plants, people and resources to create a sustainable future for all. So when the next stage of the development began – the construction of an Education and Resource Centre ('The Core') – the design of the building was always going to be of great interest, with Tim Smit, Eden’s Chief Executive predicting that it will ‘one of the most sustainable, finest modern building in the world’.

The design of the building, which was inspired by plant formations, was created by world-leading architects Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners.The main contractor, McAlpine Joint Ventures, worked with solarcentury on the project to integrate solar PV panels within the building's ‘Fibonacci’ roof design. The Core is the most geometrically complex roof structure into which solarcentury has incorporated solar PV.

Solar design

TheMertonRule.org - case_studies

Environment Agency Red Kite House

Spitalfields Bishops Square

Case Studies

Manchester College of Arts and Technology (MANCAT)

Croydon Centrale

Willow Lane, Mitcham

Background

The Merton Rule

The Merton 10% (+) policy

CIS Solar Tower

The Eden Centre