MOD reaches energy reduction milestone

Government departments are mandated to reduce carbon emissions by 12.5 per cent by 2010/11 and 30 per cent by 2020, relative to 1999/00 levels.

The details of the MOD's reductions have been published in a report by the MOD's Sustainable Development Team.

The Government's Sustainable Operations on the Government Estate energy reduction targets apply to all central Government Departments, executive agencies, and to non-Departmental Public Bodies on a case-by-case basis.

The targets set a common agenda for central Government on a number of priority areas for action and are helping to drive a significant step-change for improvement in the sustainable management of Government land and buildings.

In addition to meeting the 12.5 per cent energy reduction targets, the MOD has also secured funding of £8.5m from the Department for Energy and Climate Change for in excess of 30 energy saving projects, to be completed within this financial year, including an improved heating system at Buckley Barracks in Wiltshire and the conversion of part of the HMS Raleigh heating system to solar.

This will deliver annual savings to MOD of £2m and carbon savings of 7,000 tonnes. Some of the £8.5m funding is to be used to deliver oil meters at over 40 of the MOD's largest oil consuming sites and 50 electricity meters at six sites in Germany.

Matt Foley, Head of MOD's Central Programme Office for Energy within Defence Estates, said:

"Carbon reduction and energy efficiency are rapidly rising up the political agenda and the MOD is at the forefront of Central Government's response.

"We are among the major energy consumers across Government, and this achievement is further evidence of our commitment to reduce public sector carbon emissions and use Defence resources as efficiently as possible, to ensure maximum funding and resources on the front line.

"We want to increase the renewable energy sources in use on the Defence estate and we're making good progress.

"We are working with the Carbon Trust to identify the potential for using biomass and are seeking other opportunities in terms of wind and hydro energy, converting waste to energy and other smaller scale initiatives.

"The upshot of all this work will be a strategy for introducing renewable technologies onto the estate.

"We are also working closely with the Department for Energy and Climate Change and the Office of Government Commerce and are in regular liaison with many others to ensure commonality of approach, share best practice and, where possible, pool our limited resources."

The MOD is currently working on a number of further initiatives to reduce energy consumption across the estate:

"We are currently rolling out a SMART Metering Programme and a new Energy Management Information System is being developed that will collate data from the meters," Matt added.

"Together these will significantly improve the Department's data reporting capability in terms of both timeliness and accuracy.

"We are also beginning to coordinate site energy audits in order to help build a comprehensive picture of energy across the estate. These measures will help in our attempts to attain the Carbon Trust Standard, which was the world's first carbon reduction certification scheme.

"Developing an energy policy, standards and a toolkit is also high on our agenda. The newly created MOD Programme Office for Energy will become a 'one stop shop' for resources relating to energy and will serve the whole MOD on non-operational energy matters."

Ed Jones, Managing Director of Space & Defence at Logica, which is working with the MOD to develop an energy Management Information System (eMIS), said:

"We are pleased to be a part of MOD's drive to better understand and manage its energy use. Actively managing energy consumption across such a large and diverse property portfolio as the Defence estate requires detailed and timely data.

"By investing in better energy information, the MOD will ultimately be able to identify and act on those sites and buildings exhibiting excessive levels of energy consumption."

Recent examples of energy 'good practice' on the Defence estate include:

• A ground source heat pump project at Crowborough Training Camp, Sussex. The replacement heating system for some 32 small accommodation blocks will deliver 60 per cent carbon emissions reductions and significant cost savings over time. The team investigated a number of approaches and trialled the use of a ground source heat pump that used a vertical bore hole as the underground heat source. This is relatively new technology in the UK and innovative as far as defence use is concerned. The trial proved the principle and exceeded expectations and has now been taken up at other similar sites where heating a cluster of small buildings has proven to be problematic. This project won the Sustainability Project Award category in MOD's Sanctuary Conservation Awards 2009.
• At the new Defence Food Services School, Worthy Down, Hampshire, a range of measures have been used to reduce energy consumption and to improve energy efficiency. These include the air handling systems in each kitchen which are capable of recovering up to 70% of the waste heat, generated mainly by the kitchen equipment; all appliances are of the highest energy rating currently available; use of occupancy and movement sensitive lighting; high efficiency boilers for hot water and heating; low energy, long life lamps, which last an average of 80,000 hours.
• Sennybridge Training Area, Powys, was developed during the Second World War. Timber hut accommodation buildings were put up on site as cheaply and as quickly as possible, at a time when energy efficiency was of little or no concern. The huts are still required today and refurbishment work on eight of the huts began in January 2009. By stripping wall linings and suspended ceilings and carrying out any structural repairs, wall cavity insulation and 300mm of loft insulation was added which has reduced the annual carbon dioxide emissions associated with each hut from 1,765kg to 233kg; a 7.5 fold reduction, equivalent to the carbon dioxide emissions of three average cars.

See Related Links >>> to view the MOD's Sustainable Development Report.

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