The Renewable Energy Centre is located in a relatively affluent part of the United Kingdom. However, the relocation of an expanding company to Kings Langley will provide opportunities for work and provide alternative career possibilities outside the magnet of London, obviating the need to commute. The new facilities will assist RES in expanding their operations worldwide and the creation of wealth inherent in this expansion.

Transference of the content and the experience gained from the design, installation, commissioning and testing of the energy systems to those in the construction, renewable and property industries and businesses in the UK will foster the growth and development of them. The professional and commercial exploitation of design strategies, installation design and new products resulting from the project will also assist development of them.

Life Chances

The main social benefit locally will be the provision of an efficient and stimulating workplace. However, the decision to operate the new head office as a visitors’ centre and information resource, allowing those of all levels of interest to learn about the technologies and issues involved in creating low and zero net energy work settings, provides an invaluable national facility. The web site allows access to this data and information world

Clean and Green

Bringing back to life a derelict building rather than building new is a considerable benefit in terms of land utilisation, use of resources and improving the amenity of the area. The construction work was undertaken on the basis of minimising waste and using materials and components with low embodied energy from readily available resources.

In order to minimise the need for energy, a judicious combination of active systems (mechanical ventilation, artificial cooling, heating and lighting, building management systems) and passive systems (solar heating, natural ventilation and lighting, solar shading, a well insulated building envelope incorporating thermal mass) was developed.

The buildings are exposed to considerable external noise from passing trains to the west and the motorway to the south. To cut out the disturbance from noise inside the buildings, the outward facing facades had to be sealed. This, together with the relatively high levels of heat generated by modern office use, requires the building to be artificially cooled in summer months. The cooling source is water drawn from aquifers located in the chalk below the building. This strategy avoids the heavy energy consumption and potential polluting effects of refrigeration plant normally used for air conditioning. The cool water is used to drop the temperature of air being fed into the building and/or is circulated through convectors within the office space, cooling the air within it.

Heat is supplied from the biomass boiler (or gas boiler until such time the biomass plant is installed) and from the PVT array, either direct or via the seasonal ground heat store. Hot water from these sources is used in a similar way as the chilled water for cooling. Electricity is generated from the PVT array and the wind turbine.

Windows can be opened in facades and roofs facing away, or sheltered from, the motorway and the railway, to ventilate the building in temperate conditions. Exposed
windows are shaded from the sun by fixed glass or aluminium screens and by deciduous tree planting, thereby reducing unwanted solar gains and the need for cooling. The building is well insulated and sealed.

Predicted energy use and energy supply is shown in the table below. The current monitoring programme will show whether these predictions are born out in reality.

Estimated energy balance for the site:

A building management system (BMS) controls and optimises all the energy systems, including opening and closing the roof lights. It also records all monitored results from the various energy systems before passing the results to a site in Denmark for uploading onto the website.

RES actively encourages staff to use public transport, bicycles and car sharing for travel between home and office.

About 5ha of the 7.5ha site are given over to miscanthus cultivation. In addition there is a car park and a 5 aside football pitch. The remainder of the land is planted with indigenous species of trees, shrubs and grasses. Wild life is encouraged by the re-creation of natural habitats.