Page 5 - Survival Plan: Climate Emergency

In Numbers: The University
John Priestley handing over the key to a new Nissan electric van to Steve Duncombe and Alex Rice from the engineering and maintenance team
£0invested in fossil fuel
companies
2:1tree replacement policy – about
10,500 trees on campus
31% reduction in carbon emissions
25
of 73 university vehicles are electric
3,000
tonnes of CO2 saved in 10 years of ‘Green Impact’ sustainability projects
94.5%
of waste is recycled, composted or sent for energy recovery
3,586
tonnes of CO2 saved every year by energy projects
since 2005
Wednesday,September18,2019 www.thestar.co.uk
THESTAR 5
Sustainable new home for the social sciences
An artist’s impression of the University of Sheffield’s new social sciences building.
Sheffield University’s £45m new social sciences building will be its most sustainable.
When it opens in 2021, it will be heated and cooled by a geothermal heat pump, a first for the city.
During summer, heat is taken from the building and pumped into the ground, which acts as a giant heat sump. In winter it is pumped back into the
building and topped up with heat from either the National Grid or an internal gas turbine – whichever is providing cleaner energy at the time.
The gas turbine produces heat and electricity and will be used at times when it offers a cleaner alternative to the national grid, for example in winter when there is less renewable energy being produced.
Along with solar panels on the roof, this will ensure the new building is always using the cleanest energy possible.
Being constructed on the corner of Witham and Northumberland Roads, the building will bring together 13 of the University’s social science departments, including journalism, economics and sociology, and serve 9,000 students.
Nuclear fusion research centre in quest for limitless green power
South Yorkshire is set to play a key role in the quest for limitless green power with a £22m nuclear fusion research centre.
The UK Atomic Energy Authority is set to open
a base on the Advanced Manufacturing Park, employing 40, by summer 2020.
It could also lead to 75 new jobs in the supply chain and pump £40m into the local economy, a UKAEA report states.
The site, next to the McLaren factory on Whittle Way, will focus
on new materials and manufacturing techniques for a fusion power plant.
It will allow staff
to collaborate with researchers at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre and the Nuclear AMRC, both part of Sheffield University, and hi-tech manufacturing companies.
Fusion uses seawater
as fuel, its waste is at a ‘low level’ of radioactivity and has just a 12-year half life.
In fusion, two types of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium, are heated to 100m degrees, producing helium and neutrons which are used to make heat, which makes steam, which is used to
drive electricity-producing turbines.
The Advanced Manufacturing Park from the air