Renewables Commissioning
Bling
generation
Setting national and local targets for the
meet a high energy demand. Our first priority should
be reducing the demand.
installation of renewable technologies is
‘Although they are sustainable in terms of what they
important for cutting carbon emissions,
are generating, renewables are not totally renewable
because they are constructed from natural resources,
but such policies can also result in a lot
which are finite. For example, silicon used to make
of buildings becoming adorned with
solar photovoltaic panels is limited and we can’t keep
using steel and other commodities from which the
inappropriate green bling, according to
renewables are made.’
experts. Ian Vallely reports
The priority should be to make the building
sustainable in the first place by installing better glazing
and insulation and reducing the demand – and then
T
he Renewable Energy Strategy, published in July looking at smaller boilers, more efficient chillers, more
2009, set out the UK government’s plans for compact lighting, better control, pumps, fans, motors
meeting the national target of sourcing 15 per and so on, Wilsons insists.
cent of energy from renewables by 2020. But The idea of an ‘energy hierarchy’ approach has been
there has been criticism of this approach from some advocated for some time. As Malina puts it: ‘The energy
in the industry for putting the renewables cart before hierarchy is split into three. You start by reducing the
the energy strategy horse. It is not that these people demand for energy in the first place. So, check the
are not in favour of renewables. It is, they say, simply
a question of priorities.
For example, while acknowledging that they can form
People are looking at the issue of
a valuable part of a project’s overall technological mix,
renewables should never be considered in isolation
renewables the wrong way around
and shouldn’t be the first port of call for consultants by going in for fashion statements
embarking on a new project, according to experts.
– Mike Malina
As Mike Malina, director of Energy Solutions
Associates, puts it: ‘We should be looking at how the insulation, examine the functionality of the building,
entire technology lifecycle, including its embodied look at techniques like solar shading, and so on.‘
energy, impacts on the specifying decisions we make.’ ‘The aim is to conserve energy by reducing heat
He points to embodied carbon as a key issue for uptake in the summer to cut the cooling loads and, in
renewables: ‘If you take a biomass boiler system, the winter, check that the building is airtight so that
wood pellets to fuel them must be processed. That you are not leaking heat.
means energy goes into creating them, producing ‘The second point on the hierarchy involves
carbon emissions. Carbon also goes into delivering the checking the systems are operating effectively. Are
fuel, much of which is coming in from Slovakia – the they suitably controlled? Have you got the thermostats
transport costs a lot in terms of carbon.’ set up properly? Are the air and water systems in the
Ant Wilson, a director at consulting engineer building or the process efficient, and have they been
AECOM, adds: ‘If you start with renewables, you are commissioned correctly?
wasting your money by putting in very expensive kit to ‘The final part involves renewables. I am very much >
42 CIBSE Journal January 2010 www.cibsejournal.com
CIBSEjan10 pp42-44,46 Renewables.indd 42 17/12/09 16:06:57
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