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The work described here has impacted on European policy and standards concerning energy efficiency in Building Services.
The impact arises from two Welsh School of Architecture led and European Commission funded projects, HARMONAC (focussed on inspection of air-conditioning systems) and iSERV (focussed on automatic system monitoring and feedback). These pan-European projects demonstrate achieved energy savings of up to 33% of total building electricity use in individual buildings, and potential savings up to €60Bn. These projects demonstrably impacted the recast European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and the revision of EU Standards (European Committee for Standardisation (CEN)).
This case study describes interdisciplinary impacts developed from research of the Sustainable Energy theme. They examine conversion of energy from alternative sources; from power generation using pyrolysis or biomass burners to energy harvesting of waste heat from electronic components. In all cases the aim is clear: to develop systems that make sustainable energy production a reality. This has important impacts in advancing efficiency and reliability in renewable energy technologies. Importantly, through a number of externally funded projects, this group's members have directly influenced local, national and international companies and governmental bodies. In some cases influencing decisions and having direct impact on efficiency, value from investment and even on balance sheets. In summary, they have conducted numerous energy audits, produced a minimum of 6 best practice case studies, influenced the renewable strategies of at least 52 countries, regions or industries and are recognised as the centre for biomass fuel quality assessment.
Research by the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering (DoEng) on high-reliability micro-inverters for use in solar power systems was commercialised by DoEng spin-out company Enecsys Limited. Since 2008, Enecsys has attracted GBP34M in private investment, increased its number of employees from 7 to 75 people across three offices in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific, and shipped more than 150,000 micro-inverter units. Its revenue in financial year 2012/13 was USD11.7M. Solar power installers have confirmed that Enecsys' products, in comparison with traditional string inverters, are: easier, cheaper and safer to install; more reliable; and able to extract more energy from an array of solar panels. Enecsys products are also changing the market for solar power with simple plug-in solutions that home owners buy from retailers and install themselves.
A development of six Creative Energy Homes (CEH) on the University of Nottingham campus provides a living test-site for leading firms, including E.ON, David Wilson Homes, BASF, Tarmac, Roger Bullivant and Igloo Blueprint to work with the University of Nottingham to investigate the integration of energy efficient technologies into houses. As a result of this work, Lovell homes has won a number of sustainable housing contracts, Roger Bullivant have developed and installed 30 SystemFirst™ foundation systems and Igloo Blueprint have built £7M worth of new homes. The research findings have informed the UK Government's "Green Deal" strategy, the Nottingham Community Climate Change Strategy and received widespread acclaim through a number of public engagement activities reaching out to over 5 million people.
This case study concerns the long term (energy) sustainability of emerging winemaking regions. Underpinning research in energy efficiency and renewable technologies informs the case study in determining energy usage and benchmarks, development of energy guidelines/policy, implementation by national professional bodies and adoption of energy best practice by the local industry. Impact is through the adoption and application of benchmarks by winemaking associations, directly influencing (through policy, regulations and standards) the energy expended in making wine. The study is underpinned by international publishing accolades (Solar Energy `Best Full Length Paper in Photovoltaics', Mondol et al, 2005) and a highly prestigious personal Royal Academy of Engineering Global Research Award to Smyth.
This case study describes the national and international impact of research undertaken by Professor Chao, as part of an EU funded Framework 7 project, Digital Environment Home Energy Management Systems (DEHEMS). The project has improved existing household energy monitoring, tackling the issues of global warming and CO2 emission reduction in the domestic sector. The research has directly contributed to the development of a product called EnergyHive, subsequently marketed by Small to Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) Hildebrand Ltd, who was the industrial partner in the DEHEMS consortium. The research has delivered the following:
Beneficiaries of the research and the subsequent impact include: a commercial business, domestic energy consumers, UK and international energy companies and local authorities.
Research by staff of the Energy Systems Research Unit (ESRU) at Strathclyde has resulted in advances in the state-of-the-art in dynamic building energy modelling as encapsulated within the Open Source ESP-r program. This new capability enabled practitioners to analyse phenomena and technologies hitherto not capable of being modelled in building simulation tools. The impact stems from the embedding of ESP-r within companies resulting in service improvement and job creation, and applications of ESP-r resulting in energy demand reduction, low carbon energy systems integration and environmental impact mitigation.
The Environmental Building Group (EBG) is making an internationally-recognised impact on industry practice using building performance simulation research to look at the relationship between building use scenarios and building performance. In particular, research in building energy data analysis and the prediction of the impacts of climate change on UK building stock has enabled: C3Resources to increase turnover by 28%, double its workforce and win new international clients; Cornish Lime to develop a new product; RTP Surveyors to increase service provision; and Lend Lease and Wates Construction to change their strategies in relation to what/how they may build in the future.
Mobile technologies and in particular mobile applications have become key drivers of the economy in many countries especially those that lack established communications infrastructures. Since 2003, the research team led by Professor Al-Begain has created both significant infrastructure and know-how that became the base for the creation of the £6.4million Centre of Excellence in Mobile Applications and Services (CEMAS) that is providing research and development to SMEs in Wales to increase their competitiveness. In the first three years since its inception 28 projects have been completed and 66 companies have received services.
The University of Southampton's pioneering research into energy harvesting has produced proven economic impacts together with impacts on public policy and international standards. Perpetuum, a spin-out from Southampton employing 10 people locally, has attracted £9.6 million in venture capital and developed the world's leading vibration energy harvester. Perpetuum's harvesters are enabling the deployment of zero maintenance, battery-free wireless systems in the rail industry where the technology has revolutionised bearing monitoring. This has enabled, for the first time, real-time monitoring of rolling stock, leading to cost savings, improved reliability, efficiency and safety. Their systems have been deployed on 200 trains across the UK (Southeastern) and Sweden (SJ AB). Southampton's research has driven wider industrial uptake of the technology and Perpetuum's is also the only energy harvester approved for use with the worlds leading suppliers of wireless condition monitoring equipment (GE Bentley Nevada, National Instruments and Emerson). Promotion of the technology has led to a £1.25 million TSB competition on energy harvesting and Southampton researchers are assisting in the development of international standards and increasing public awareness of the technology.