Report of 12 September public meeting
Our guest speaker for September was Tim O’Callaghan. Tim is a consultant at Electric Places, a not-for-profit company set up in North Northamptonshire to help public and private sector organisations in the area transition to Net Zero. They have been involved with projects to build EV charging hubs and create low carbon communities among many others.
The meeting was recorded and is available on the CA-WN YouTube channel1 and Tim’s presentation slides are available to download2.
Present: Clare Slater, Claudine Howard, Ella Sage, Emmie Williamson, Harry Mellor, James Hadfield, Jane Wood, Leonie Beale, Maria Lee, Mick Lorkins, Mike Longman, Orianne Neyroud, Rupert Knowles
Apologies: Clare Robertson-Marriott, David Garlick, Jonathan Harris
Electric Places
Background
Electric Places3 is a CIC (Community Interest Company) originally set up in Corby in 2012 as Electric Corby with the backing of Corby Borough Council. They have a very broad remit but are all about sustainability and helping people to decarbonise.
Key areas are buildings, transport and energy systems. They carry out climate mitigation and adaption assessments and also cover biodiversity and just transition.
They work on securing grant funding for projects and research too. The company is fully self-funded mostly through R&D and contract work.
Electric Places are strategic, but know it is important to take action. We need to adapt!
Strategic studies – NN2NZ
Biggest recent piece of work recently was North Northamptonshire to Net Zero (NN2NZ). They reviewed over 8000 initiatives right across the area, and talked to government and other bodies to produce a cost and risk adjusted road map for NN to get to NZ by 2050.
This resulted in creation of a digital twin of North Northamptonshire; a map with many data points including infrastructure, social deprivation, level of EV uptake.
This was used to run simulations to work out the impacts of, for example:
- Putting solar panels over car parks on emissions
- Different proportions of EVs to internal combustion vehicles on emissions, air quality and the transport network
- A higher uptake of solar panels in some areas on EPC ratings
- Future housing developments
What are the big things we can do in North Northants?
- Cover carparks with solar PV
- Transition to electric vehicles, and to e-fuels for heavy goods
- Move to fossil fuel free fertilisers
- Insulate homes and get them off gas for heating and hot water
DECODE-Corby
The work on NN2NZ helped to win a grant from Innovate UK for DECODE-Corby, a plan to decarbonise the industrial cluster around the town, and emitters such as data centres and water processing sites. They are partnering with emitters and renewables producers to work out how emitters can electrify their processes – what infrastructure do they need for this and what shared infrastructure can be supported by public money.
Infrastructure
Electric Places are involved in a range of infrastructure level thinking including:
- North Northants Council Climate Change strategy. This will set out key actions the council, residents and businesses can take. Just about to go into consultation.
- Energy Infrastructure Reviews for 7 new Garden Communities. These are significant developments of 27k new homes in total, which need to be future focused i.e. move away from gas central heating and targeted to meet future building regulations. The Energy Infrastructure Review looks at the limits for developers in terms of access to the grid for houses and EV charging. Interviewed all the developers to understand the issues with grid access which is already a problem and will be worse if homes are electrified.
- They also worked on delivery of an EV charging hub with 12 chargers
Question: How does the relationship with developers work, as generally it seems to be very difficult to get them to go over minimum planning requirements?
It’s complicated! We are pushing to go above minimum policy levels. There’s a grey area about how much local authorities can go above national policies and regulations; it’s an ongoing negotiation rather than a one-off conversation. S106 funding can be used creatively to mitigate some of the emissions associated with developments. It’s always good to talk – Tim has interviewed the developers at length several times.
On a separate issue, government is only focused on emissions in operation, whereas analysis shows this is only about 5%; most emissions come from embodied carbon. There really needs to be legislation change in this area.
Action - so what are we actually doing about it?
- FlexUnity project with a consortium of EU countries to set up low carbon energy communities in Corby, Spain and Portugal. Homes received EV chargers, battery storage, detailed energy monitoring software and controls to automatically switch devices such as fridges and freezers on and off in response to grid capacity. All without impacting comfort levels for residents (there was some modelling as well as putting things into practice). Project was very successful in understanding generation of energy at local level and maximising use of that energy.
- Clear – a project funded by the Energy Redress scheme (fines on energy companies). They created another energy community, this time matching excess solar generation within the community. Residents both with and without solar PV installed are being recruited. Levels of energy generation and consumption will be monitored and excess PV energy matched with consumption across the community. Will lead to residential bill reduction for those exporting energy, and for those receiving it as they will be getting cheaper local energy. It is within current regulations. 30 is the minimum target of homes, but a supplier is on board to work with their existing customer base so hoping to get it moving quite quickly. The supplier is not allowed to gain any benefit during the life of the scheme because it is Energy Redress funded.
Question: Is this just for the summer as PV doesn’t do too well in the winter?
There can still be overspill in the winter eg if houses with PV have no one at home in the daytime; energy is still produced on sunny winter days.
Question: Have you looked at micro wind turbines?
Yes, have installed a vertical access wind turbine as part of another project, to look at harvesting urban gusty wind. It was very challenging due to the then planning guidance about onshore wind, which was a defacto ban, but this appears to be changing now. We think this will form part of the critical mix of renewables for communities.
Northern Powergrid – Community Distribution Operation (CDO)
A flagship project sponsored by Ofgem to trial a CDO framework, working with a community solar PV project in Barnsley.
At local sub station level there are many constraints on renewables generation as well as on demand. These limit the roll out of PV etc. The project monitors flow through sub stations and looks at maximising use of power including changing behaviour so people turn off at certain times, rewarded by cash or some form of credits.
Transport
- Electric Places led the roll out of an initial network of 12 EV chargers in Corby in 2012.
- Have since worked on helping EV charger manufacturers understand the human and behavioural requirements for EV hubs.
- Looking at vehicle to grid (V2G) charging; chargers that allow vehicles to pull from the grid but also to flow back depending on the cost of power at certain times.
- Now also vehicle to anything (V2X) charging; chargers can transfer power to the grid, a building, another mode of transport etc.
- This innovative charging approach provides a pool of EV batteries that can be used to help balance the grid.
Buildings
- Zero Energy Bill Homes in 2013 - Retrospectively design existing homes to improve their insulation and add low carbon technology such as heat pumps and mechanical ventilation.
- Etopia development in 2019 - Designed and marketed 47 homes delivered with modern methods of construction; built out of panels rather like flat pack furniture. All homes have an earth energy bank underneath them so excess energy is stored there and pulled back by a ground source heat pump (GSHP). They have hybrid solar and thermal PV panels which harvest light energy for both electricity and to heat hot water. The homes also have battery storage, mechanical ventilation and devices to control the battery, lights etc through a phone app.
Question: How does the cost compare with conventional building methods?
Some elements were publicly funded such as the GSHP. There have been a lot of learnings, which has led to an offshoot company called Positive Places which provides support with sustainable housing. At this stage public funding helps but we need demonstrator projects to initiate a move towards wider scale take up. And builders need to be trained in different construction methods.
Business & resident support
As a CIC Electric Places are trying to do their bit to help residents and local businesses with decarbonisation and energy efficiency.
- Working with SMEs to run workshops on decarbonisation, how can they find funding etc.
- Have helped the council launch a green transition grant aimed at SMEs to help with project funding.
- Talking to local companies about research and development into low carbon technology.
- Help for residents, for example events about saving energy and signposting vulnerable households to help with energy bills.
Q&A
What software do you use for the digital twin?
Proprietary software developed by a Leeds company called Slingshot Simulations.
Can you please describe the earth energy bank?
Boreholes drilled in the foundations of homes - obviously easier to do with newbuild homes. They store excess heat through water movement, as it’s underground they are relatively well insulated. Caplin Homes and Cardiff University developed the system. It’s an efficient way to have a ground source array (GSHP).
Are you working with any local architects for the homes?
The architects are based in Leicester.
What’s the flammability of the flatpack materials, there have been fire safety concerns about timber framed buildings?
Panels can be timber framed but these are steel framed with something that looks like plasterboard filled with non-flammable insulation. They are flood, fire and rot resistant and structurally strong enough to be built up to 3-4 floors.
Have you looked at rainwater capture?
Not sure about that, will need to check.
How realistic is it for community energy projects to be independent of the grid?
There is an opportunity but might not be ideal in an urban environment especially if you want to integrate businesses and healthcare. There would be a risk of losing power and someone would need to manage the local grid and deal with the implications of any power interruption. There are insurance implications too. The national grid is a good backup but there’s a question of how much we should all pay for the grid back up services.
One of the big problems is getting a community to agree – it’s easier to do your own thing but is there a penalty for this?
The key is to identify what are market acceptable approaches. When and how many people will move to EVs, how will the grid decarbonise? There are many uncertainties. We have all the technologies to deliver net zero but the pieces aren’t necessarily fitted together. There is not the capacity for everyone to get PV or insulation all at once.
If every house had a battery could they equalise the supply?
Batteries are part of the solution – whether fixed at home or mobile. This may not be accessible to all households though. Could less well-off people buy electricity from people who have excess? Anything greater than a domestic scale battery is a real challenge due to grid capacity.
Other Business
CA-WN Exchange (CE)
We sent out an email sharing the latest CE articles last week. We hope you read them - if you like what you read, please think about adding a brief comment and sharing through your social media accounts if you have them.
We aim to share all sorts of environmental and climate related events through the What’s On page4 on CE – at present this includes:
- Six Inches of Soil film screening at the Arc Cinema in Daventry on Thursday 19 September
- CA-WN is helping to organise a Climate Summit for Parish and Town councils at Delapre Abbey on Wednesday 9 October. Details have been sent to all councils.
- Umbrella Festival this weekend 21/22 September at the Racecourse
- Two local art exhibitions which is something new.
Northamptonshire Woodland Community Volunteers
Mick Lorkins has set up this group to progress with tree harvesting and planting projects. Volunteers are needed to help run the group and organise events as well as to participate in events. Please join the group on Facebook5 if you are interested and if you don’t have Facebook, please email mick@ca-wn.org.
Date of next meeting
Thursday 17 October, with a slightly earlier start time of 7.30 as this meeting includes our Annual General Meeting. We will cover off the statutory AGM agenda first and then move into the normal meeting with our guest speaker Marga Witteman from More Trees Now in the Netherlands, starting at around 8pm
The speaker at our last meeting of 2024 on 14 November will be Emmie Williamson with a deeper dive into some of the climate psychology topics she covered in her very popular talk earlier this year6.
References
1. https://youtu.be/prmr0Daopdg
2. https://ca-wn.org/MemberDocs/CA-WN_12_Sep_24.pdf
3. https://electricplaces.co.uk/
4. https://www.facebook.com/groups/northamptonshirewoodlandcommunityvolunteers/