Castle College goes green

Artists impression of the new Castle College. Thanks to Jefferson Sheard (Architect) and Castle College for permission to use this graphic.

Larger graphic here

12th September 2006

Dear Editor

Sheffield Green Party welcomes the design of the new Sheffield College. The three wind turbines and solar panels will provide the college with clean, green energy. This is brilliant because not only will it save fossil fuels from being burnt to produce the electricity, but also because the electricity will be used locally very little will be lost in transmission. Compare this with electricity coming from major power stations, where much of the fuel is wasted in the inefficiency of the system. For every kilowatt of electricity we use from a power station, roughly 2 kilowatts has been wasted. If decentralised energy is encouraged we will not need so many big polluting fossil fuel or nuclear power stations.

Castle College lecturer and Green campaigner Graham Wroe.

Lib Dem Councillor John Hesketh claims the wind turbines are a gimmick- but they will, with the solar panels, provide approximately 30% of the energy needs of the new building.

The college will meet the new building regulations for insulation and will therefore be far more energy efficient than the current building which has a single layer of glass for an external wall!

The green roof will be an important addition. With so much of Sheffield covered in tarmac, and with the climate becoming more unpredictable, the risk of floods is increasing. Green roofs not only add to our bio diversity, but help to absorb the rain and reduce the risk of flooding.

The Greens would like to strengthen planning guidance to ensure that all new buildings have such features and encourage householders and businesses to invest in insulation and alternative energy production with grants. The Sheffield Development Framework should demand that all new buildings are built to the highest eco-standard.

Lets hope the new Castle College is the first of many buildings in Sheffield that incorporates alternative energy production.

Yours sincerely

Graham Wroe

Sheffield Green Party

Notes

The distribution system loses (as heat) about 8% of the energy that is supplied to it - i.e. it is 92% efficient. The generation system is less efficient. A conventional power station is about 35% efficient - although modern combined heat and power (CHP) plants can have efficiencies approaching 60%. Most of the losses in the power station are inherent in the thermodynamic processes with the generators being about 92% efficient. So, by the time we use the electricity, it only represents about 33% of the original energy content of the fuel. There is then a further loss in the appliance that we use. For a standard motor, this would be about 12%, making the whole system about 28% efficient.

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