Cogeneration In Woking  

Posted by Big Gav in ,

The SMH has an article on use of cogeneration/trigeneration in Woking (on the outskirts of London), which has helped the town become almost self-sufficient for electricity generation and has dramatically reduced CO2 emissions - Flicking the switch from hot air to usable heat. The author is now attempting to implement a similar plan for the whole of London, and recommends Sydney try a similar approach.

The 21st century has been billed as the century of the city. For the first time in history, more than half the world's population is living in cities. It is also the century of climate change and reliable science says we are already on the brink of irreversible damage to our planet.

Cities are our most profligate consumers of scarce resources and our worst polluters. Cities are the primary cause of climate change and are most at risk from climate change, but they also provide the solution to tackling it.

It makes sense, therefore, to begin finding city-wide solutions to the problems of climate change. Solutions do exist. They have been implemented and shown to work. What is needed is the political will and the co-operation of all levels of government and the private sector to implement solutions on a broader scale.

In the 1980s, I was already convinced that global warming was a reality, so when I joined the Borough of Woking in Surrey, I was determined to do something about it.

As chief engineer of this borough of 100,000 people, I introduced the energy efficiency revolving fund that led to replacing the town's electricity and heating systems with cogeneration, also known as combined heat and power generation.

In centralised power stations, two-thirds of the energy generated is dispersed into the atmosphere as heat, and further losses occur in transmission and distribution across the grid. Fifty per cent of Britain's water resources are used to evaporate this waste heat.

In Woking, we installed a gas-fired system (far less polluting than coal), which generates electricity locally. Heat from the generation process is captured and piped underground to supply heating and hot water. This is cogeneration, and in some countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands, more than 50 per cent of their energy comes from cogeneration.

In a further step - trigeneration - waste heat is converted to chilled water for air-conditioning and refrigeration. Trigeneration has a huge impact in reducing carbon dioxide emissions since it displaces electricity that would otherwise be consumed by conventional air-conditioning, generates more low-carbon electricity and does not use greenhouse gas or ozone-depleting refrigerants.

In Woking, trigeneration - supplemented by fuel cells and renewable energy such as solar panels - enabled the town to produce 80 per cent of its own power by 2004 and to drop its CO2 emissions by 77 per cent in 14 years. The power and heat was also cheaper for customers.

I spent almost a year living not that far from Woking and even played for the town basketball team for a couple of months. I couldn't remember any distinctive features about the place whatsoever though (except for a few Formula 1 car operations on the outskirts) - however a quick Flickr search reveals that something strange has occupied the town centre since I was last there...

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I have proposed that to try to get the town of Nowra [180km south of Sydney] out of decline, the CBD's recovery needs to include cogeneration. Here is text of my release earlier today. Comments welcome:

It is clear that the [Shoalhaven City] council has made a complete mess of Nowra's prospects. Running our score on the Index of Socioeconomic Disadvantage down to 826.
http://www.id.com.au/profile/Default.aspx?id=312&pg=244&gid=10&type=enum


How do we start again?

These are my views.

[1] we have to have a broad and long term perspective. Shoalhaven 2020. Consider how much the world has changed in the past 12 years. We need to think at least that far ahead, three council terms.

[2] we have to have council leadership, transparency and integrity such as to inspire and encourage investment here, in what is a going to be a difficult investment climate for some years.

[3] we have to bring community and business together in the planning process. Strength in partnership.

[4] we need to get Nowra properly in the framework of infrastructure planning for NSW and make it a hub for smart business as much as Hurstville, Chatswood and other hubs in the immediate Sydney area.

[5] the forward plan has to take into account energy costs and climate change policies and impacts AND to find advantage in those

SPECIFICS FOR CONSIDERATION:

[6] with an anticipated rise in petrol costs to as much as $8 we need to rebuild the case for the railway to come across the river. I would like to see, by 2020, a station in the present Stockland carpark, an industrial line continuing to South Nowra and Flinders Estate. Later beyond. Every past negative on the railway has to be rejected in the new energy and climate change situation. Do not doubt the gravity or the serious need for very new thinking.

[7] The future development of Stockland (or other) shopping mall needs to go up and over such a railway station and the highway, linking with the rest of the CBD

[8] parking areas in the CBD need to be developed upwards. The space above to combine residential and commercial.

[9] attractiveness and commercial viability of these new CBD precincts increased by power cogeneration projects within the precincts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroCHP
http://www.industrysearch.com.au/Products/Co-Generation_systems-18549
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/flicking-the-switch-from-hot-air-to-usable-heat/2008/07/21/1216492347746.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
- consideration to be given to joint public-private partnerships.

[10] The health and security of the CBD thus enhanced by bringing people to live there, bringing the area to life. Requires attraction of new people, new smart industries.

[10] focus on pedestrian connection and human scale throughout the CBD, linking also down to the riverfront.

[11] retention of town built character and heritage.


Dennis Argall
02 4421 3840
www.shoalhaven2020.net

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