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This paper provides a brief description and overview of an 'Energy Feasibility Study' performed to demonstrate the energy, recycling and waste management opportunities within the facilities and operations of a Premiership football club. In addition, it was intended to be able to be used as an educational tool to increase public awareness.
Background
The football club is totally dependent on electricity and gas as its source of energy and was considered to be an ideal high profile champion to promote public awareness for climate change. The club recognised the need to reduce conventional energy use and are extremely keen to be involved with the council, local business and the local community to develop green energy initiatives. It was agreed to commission the delivery of a feasibility study, which would encompass all objectives, to provide options for future consideration and implementation..
Implementation
A review was performed on the current status of energy supplies and their effect on the environment. Further to this, several renewable energy applications were identified and these were:
- Ground source heat pump.
- Wind turbine.
- Photovoltaic cells.
- Combined heat & power.
- Biomass boilers.
- Rain water harvesting.
Note: this is not an exhaustive list, just shows the potential solutions to be considered.
For each potential solution a case study was developed considering all of the advantages and dis-advantages, including the energy saving, capital costs, and payback periods.
As part of the study an in depth assessment was performed on the current infrastructure to identify were and how the utilities are used. This included the consumption figures for electricity, gas and water, together with the variance during the stadium utilisation, which itself identified the requirement for additional sub-metering to fully account for all utility usage.
The Results
The results of the project were extremely positive and identified the most cost effective and environmentally friendly solutions, with potential savings of 28 million kWh hours of energy and over 8000 tonnes of CO2. Furthermore, the benefits can be summarised as:
- Allow the club to reduce operating costs, thereby increasing funds available for other requirements such as ground improvements and new players.
- Maintain comfort conditions for spectators efficiently and at a reduced cost.
- Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions.
- Set New Benchmarks/Best Practice for Sporting Arenas.
- Promote Energy Awareness in the Community.
- Opportunity to Develop links with Local Educational Establishments.
- Realise an Improvement in the image of the club by Community.
Category: Case Studies
