Barnsley Council plans for reductions in  CO2 emissions

(Notes by Alasdair Beal from a talk by Dick Bradford of Barnsley Council to Yorkshire ICE in February 2009)

In 1986 Barnsley Council adopted an energy efficiency policy with a target of reducing energy consumption by 15% in 5 years. They actually achieved  a reduction of 20% in 4 years.

The Government’s targets for CO2 reductions by local authorities take 1990 as a baseline, so Barnsley then had to achieve further reductions. Barnsley developed advanced building energy management systems, writing its own software, which reduced coal consumption by 45%. They developed a ‘smart card’ system for housing tenants to control heat from a district heating system; this combined by a change to woodchip-fired boilers reduced tenants average weekly heating bills from £11/week to £5/week. They are also keen on radiant heaters and underfloor heating (which operates at a maximum temperature of 28°), heat exchangers in ventilation systems and biomass boilers.
They did a survey and estimated that 45,000t per year of biomass could be sourced within a 15 mile radius of Barnsley and started by converting coal fired boilers to woodchip firing. They are particularly keen on Austrian boilers which can burn wet wood and are 92% efficient. The Council’s main depot is now planned to become self-sufficient in energy, using cuttings from parks and street trees.
The Government set a target of a 20% reduction by 2010, subsequently extended to 2016; Barnsley passed this target in 2001. The Government has a target of 40% reduction by 2020; Barnsley passed this in 2005. Soon Barnsley plans to achieve the Government’s 2050 target of 60% reductions. It then plans go on and achieve 80% reductions, which it believes will be achieved by 2015.