An architectural image for the proposed Shell Centre development. The work progressing on the eight buildings that constitute the development will be in energy and sustainability terms as lean, clean and green as possible.
By Denise Marray
Energy efficiency and sustainability are at the heart of the proposed Shell Centre development on London’s South Bank. However, the Qatari Diar and Canary Wharf Group joint venture is facing a legal challenge which must be resolved before work can commence on the project that will take some six years to complete.
The challenge relates to issues around affordable housing, the setting of heritage assets and open space. It claims the decision to approve the scheme by Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, is flawed.
A ruling is expected in December and meantime work continues apace on fine tuning the specifications that will ensure the eight buildings that constitute the development will be in energy and sustainability terms as lean, clean and green as possible.
David Hodge, Head of M&E & Sustainability at Canary Wharf Group, told Gulf Times that the aim is always to drive for maximum quality, improving on the standard requirements by a significant margin.
“We were targeting a 25% improvement on this project with the minimum standard required by building regulations. We have achieved just over 30% and a large chunk of that energy efficiency improvement is through passive measures (be lean) and Combined Heat and Power (CHP) generation (be clean).”
CHP is the simultaneous generation of usable heat and power (usually electricity) in a single process.
The heat generated is supplied to an appropriately matched heat demand that would otherwise be met by a conventional boiler. CHP systems are highly efficient, making use of the heat which would otherwise be wasted when generating electricity. This allows heat requirements to be met that would otherwise require additional fuel to be burnt.
Hodge explained: “On the proposed Shell Centre development, we have eight buildings in total connected to a central heating plant which has highly efficient conventional boilers alongside a combined heat and power generator. What makes it efficient is that you are using the waste heat to provide heating to the building. If you look at the electricity that you get from the UK national grid it is about 30% efficient, so for every kilowatt of fuel that is burnt you only get a third of that. With combined heat and power you are using that energy more efficiently; the electricity generation is about the same efficiency but you are using a lot of the waste to heat so it’s about 70% efficient rather than 30% efficient using conventional means.”
When it comes to energy efficiency within buildings, ground-breaking advances in light-emitting diode (LED) lighting are also central to improvements. LEDs are an energy efficient way of producing light with a significantly reduced carbon footprint compared to a conventional light bulb. As Hodge said: “Lighting technology is developing at a staggering rate at the moment with a focus on LED.”
LED will be a major feature within the office and residential spaces of the Shell Centre development.“On the South Bank development, we are targeting full LED lighting design where practical. We are also making sure there are controls in place so that lighting is switched on only when people are present, or lights dim down when there is sufficient daylight through the windows.
These measures save a lot of energy: there is a lot of focus on the actual control of the lighting as well as the energy efficiency. That’s probably one of the biggest growth areas at the moment in terms of building technology,” he said. Ensuring that buildings are efficiently sealed is also a basic but technically challenging aspect of achieving energy efficiency.
“Buildings need to be sealed and airtight to prevent air leaking in. It’s surprising the amount of detail you need to put in during the planning for design and construction of the building to minimise air leakage. You have to conduct tests with pressurised air to measure how much air is leaking out of the building and ensure that standards are being met in compliance with the building regulations. Seals on windows and joints must be secure to ensure there is no air leakage from outside. Junctions between walls and roofs need special attention. Basically you have to make sure the building envelope is as efficient as possible,” said Hodge.
Utilising the latest energy saving technologies does not come cheap especially when the guiding principle as Hodge explained is, “to make improvements by quite a significant margin.”
He observed: “Obviously it costs us a lot more money to put these systems in place – but it adds value to the property and it means that energy bills for those working and living in the development will be a lot less and hopefully it will be a much cleaner and more pleasant environment to work and live in.”Developers have to be on their toes to keep pace with the ever evolving technologies aimed at improving energy efficiency and sustainability.
“The energy targets are becoming more and more difficult to achieve. There is a continual updating in BREEAM (BREEAM is the world’s foremost environmental assessment method and rating system for sustainable buildings) as well as the building regulations. Every time there is an update in the building regulations there is also an update in the BREEAM targets as well.
There is a continual improvement in energy efficiency which is proving very challenging for air-conditioned buildings. Every three years or so the targets are revised and updated and the bar is raised yet again so you have to continually meet the targets and keep pace,” said Hodge.
