Fast Facts: UK and Sustainable Energy

The Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW) took place from 31 October to 4 November 2011.

It was an annual week-long platform for energy professionals, policymakers and commentators to discuss and share best practices and solutions within the global energy space.

Dr Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, represented the UK at the event.

Fast Facts

• UK companies are developing and deploying world-class solutions to energy and resource efficiency for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Across the Games and into the future, the priority is to minimise emissions, reduce waste, improve energy efficiency and ensure legacy facilities are able to cope with the impacts of climate change.
  
• The Primary Substation, located alongside the Energy Centre in King’s Yard, in the west of the Olympic Park won a RIBA award for Glasgow based firm NORD Architecture.
  
• New energy infrastructure will help achieve 50 per cent reduction in carbon emissions from permanent buildings on Olympic Park.
  
• The Combined Heat and Power plant at the energy centre is up to 30 per cent more energy efficient than traditional generation and will lead to carbon reduction of more than 1000 tonnes per year.
  
• The UK now has 5,767.66 megawatts (MW) of wind energy generating capacity installed. This will be split between 1,524.60 MW of offshore wind and 4,243.06MW of onshore wind. 
  
• The UK is now the largest single market for offshore wind in the world, which presents huge opportunities right through the supply chain and has the potential to create up to 70,000 jobs many of which will be in manufacturing.
  
• Wave and tidal stream energy could supply up to 20 per cent of domestic electricity demand, creating up to 16,000 jobs in the UK by 2050.
  
• The UK is launching The Green Investment Bank, the world’s first national development bank dedicated to the green economy with £3 billion of possible funding for low-carbon projects, including offshore wind and energy efficiency.
  
• Arup and Partners, the international engineering designers, created the ‘Showcase’ - a miniature arena designed to show how Qatar would create stadia for the 2022 Football World Cup. It developed traditional ‘passive’ design into a new energy-saving and comfortable architecture. Photovoltaics convert the energy of the sun into electricity; capturing and converting the sun’s heat into cooling for summertime air conditioning using under-seat supply. This Showcase intended to show how energy can be considered as an integrated aspect of architecture, engineering and infrastructure.
  
• Designed by Foster + Partners, Beijing airport’s international terminal is one of the world’s most sustainable. The terminal incorporates a range of passive environmental design concepts, such as the south east orientated skylights which maximise heat gain from the early morning sun and an integrated environment control system that minimises energy consumption.
  
• University College London and Tianguan Group have agreed to develop a biogas research facility near Nanyang. Professor Michael Worton, Vice-Provost of UCL said: "We are excited by the opportunity to link our world-leading research with a major bioenergy company in China in an innovative approach to collaborative working to help change the direction of energy technology."
  
• Cambridge marine start-up Green Tide Turbines (GTT), has lined up £20 million of potential investment in Brazil. GTT is developing a revolutionary method of generating energy from tidal power that is more efficient and cheaper to operate that existing technology. Whilst GTT is currently trailing the technology in the UK, it is also targeting some of the world’s most iconic waterways – including the Amazon.
  
• On the back on winning a milestone project in Greater Manchester, Keppel Seghers opened an office in the London in 2010 to bolster its strategic plans to pursue further opportunities in energy recovery projects in the UK. The Greater Manchester Waste to Energy contracts are worth GBP390million in all and has created more than 100 jobs locally. The facility is part of a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) to provide an integrated solution for the 1.3 million tonnes of municipal waste that the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority handles each year. Keppel is actively pursuing other energy recovery projects in the UK and Europe, including the Gloucestershire PFI project.