Transitioning to a Low Carbon Society
By: Keele University
Tags: Climate Change, Keele Executive Committee, Green Energy, Sustainability

Transitioning to a Low Carbon Society

As we start to emerge from the pandemic, there is necessarily a huge focus on economic recovery locally, nationally and globally. Last November, the Prime Minister announced his Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution. The plan sets out the approach the government wants to take to rebuild the economy (Build Back Better), support the growth of new ‘green’ jobs, and accelerate the country’s path to ‘Net Zero’ — a situation where there are no net greenhouse gas emissions.

Achieving net zero is both a hugely ambitious and massively challenging aim for society, and requires firstly, a very substantial reduction in our current levels of greenhouse gas emissions, and secondly, to balance out the remaining carbon emissions by removing at least the same amount from the atmosphere through various reduction measures.

There is international recognition through scientific research and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of the need to very substantially reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, principally carbon dioxide, but also methane, to tackle climate change and limit the level of global temperature rise, which is increasingly apparent and visible, for example through increased melting of the polar ice caps, accelerated sea level rise, longer, more intense heatwaves and more extreme rainfall and weather events, and changes to our biodiversity and natural environment.

The need to take rapid action to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate the effects of climate change and work towards a more sustainable future has been highlighted by many, including probably most notably, and with huge public impact, by Sir David Attenborough, including when he visited Keele in 2019. The rapid and emerging development of new ‘green’ low carbon sustainable technologies that we are witnessing in all spheres of our lives is essential and will transform society and our lives beyond recognition, but it will also require significant changes from individuals and communities to adopt more sustainable behaviours.

Over the last five years, it has been hugely satisfying to see first-hand the great progress we’ve made here at Keele University in relation to our ambitious goal to embed sustainability in all aspects of our activities — our research, our education, our external and business engagement activities and our campus operations and community, and in so doing be recognised and respected as a genuine leader and beacon of excellence for sustainability.

Over this period there have been numerous great successes and achievements, including most recently in April winning the ‘Sustainability Institution of the Year’ Award at the prestigious Green Gown Awards, being ranked in the global Top 100 for the third year in succession in the Times Higher Education Global Impact Rankings, which measure universities’ social and economic impact and their performance against the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and in the Top 50 of the UI Green Metrics Global Sustainability Rankings for the last four years. We will also never forget the memorable visit by Sir David Attenborough to hear more about our sustainability achievements and vision.

However, one of the best and most visible demonstrations of Keele University’s commitment to sustainability and seriously reducing our carbon emissions, is our major new multi-technology low carbon energy generation park currently being developed on the Keele campus, that will see at least 50% of the University’s campus electricity requirements generated from renewable sources. This is a hugely exciting and important development and one which has been a long-held ambition. This major development is in partnership with ENGIE, a leading multinational company focused on producing and supplying sustainable low carbon energy, who are managing and financing the project.

Work started transforming the large area to the south of campus last October. Once the site was prepared, a major job in its own right, work commenced on the foundations and bases for the two large wind turbines. Two weeks ago, installation of the first of the 12,500 solar photo-voltaic (PV) panels took place, which felt like a really major step, as well as a particularly poignant step on Keele’s journey to becoming a net zero organisation. Once installation of all 12,500 solar panels is complete, the two wind turbines and a large industry size storage battery will be installed to complete the project.

The project is on track to be achieving substantial solar power generation by August, with wind power generation before the end of the year. The solar panels and wind turbines will together provide enough energy to provide at least half of Keele’s annual campus electricity requirements, which will be simply fantastic. The industry size battery will provide a large storage capability to enable optimum use of the renewable, low carbon energy generated against the electricity demand on campus.

Furthermore, the Keele campus is home to Europe’s largest Smart Energy Network Demonstrator (SEND), using our campus of over 10,000 students, 2,000 staff and 350 buildings and the Keele community as a genuine living laboratory to research, develop and test new innovative low carbon, smart and energy efficient technologies. The Minister for Climate Change, Lord Callanan, visited the campus in May to see SEND for himself and learn more about its potential to transform towns and cities to smart low carbon cities. The combination of major on-site renewable energy generation, energy storage capability and integration with our smart energy network to use the low carbon energy more efficiently and reduce energy use, is incredibly exciting and quite unique, and a genuine model for towns and cities of the future as we try to accelerate our transition to net zero and a more sustainable future.