The subject of Climate Change, and the very clear evidence of how this is effecting our daily lives, could not be better illustrated than by Storm Darragh which has just battered Northern Devon and prompted the issuing of the highest level (Red Warning) of danger to life from the Met Office – my mobile was not to be silenced when the warning alarm was automatically triggered.
This is unprecedented stuff and we have all experienced the extraordinary violence and intensity of these attacks from ever frequent weather events.
I am not about to bend your ear on this depressing, provocative and apparently unresolvable subject. Solutions are better than problems. Having to look no further for these than what is currently happening on our patch is therefore both exciting and inspiring.
Petroc College is already leading with many initiatives which, one way or another, benefit most of our local businesses and communities. They have long been passionate about sustainability and tackling climate change. This is one of their stated aims and objectives in the Strategy “Towards 2025”
The college is well equipped to deliver on this. Their 8 hectare (20 acre) site is situated in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the UNESCO designated North Devon Biosphere (of which I am proud to be the Foundation Chair). It currently hosts around 11,000 students and is constantly improving its longterm sustainable plans for both the campus and beyond (which is signed up to by staff and students). This includes recycling and waste, travel, energy use and procurement. The College holds a Planet Mark Certificate, membership of the Plastic Free North Devon consortium and has recently signed up to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Positive recent highlights include the opening of the Environmental Space Living Lab. This sits beside their COTIE Innovation Launchpad facility. It provides opportunities to use cutting edge equipment and to conduct realtime testing for a wide variety of environmental schemes including sustainable agriculture and environmental technologies.
They have established the Petroc Sustainable Society Partnership which comprises multidisciplinary teams of students who collaborate on innovative projects such as making wind turbine designs or solar panels more visually appealing.
There is an international dimension to this with a very recent four day Green Skills Partnership visit to Morocco to study and share knowledge regarding renewable energy skills.
This puts Petroc and Northern Devon in a prime position to participate in the extraordinary XLinks project. I have written about this before but, to remind you, is a £20bn investment linking an area of semi-arid Morocco, the size of London, with Northern Devon. This will comprise a combination of solar panels and wind turbines generating around 8% of the UK’s energy requirements. It will be transported 4,000km (2,500 miles) via a marine cable to a landfall near Braunton and a connection to the National Grid at Alverdiscott.
The crown jewel, however, for the college is nearing completion. This was instigated as a result of student power hoping to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels by replacing their current heating system with an air-source heat pump system. After an heroic efforts by the College Executives, they secured consent and sufficient funding for a 900kW system which will support 95% of their heating demands using entirely non-polluting and sustainable energy resources. There is also a solar panel initiative at their Tiverton campus. This will assist in achieving their carbon neutral target by 2035.
It has been no mean feat to fit this into the existing campus. The energy centre is housed in the former Eco House. This is a major engineering exercise involving complex pipe networks and supported by a thermal battery. The installation is around 3m high with the thermal store 6m high. This is surrounded by tall buildings which screen and baffle the operation. The location was selected to cause the lowest possible visual and environmental impact. It will cause minimal disturbance to neighbouring residential properties. All this has been achieved without disruption to the college’s daily activities. The work is scheduled to be completed in the next few months.
The specialist installation contractor has used local suppliers, subcontractors and labour where possible. The students have also been able to study the work and visit the point of production of what is leading edge equipment. This should assist them to gain entry into the increasing employment opportunities of this burgeoning industry.
Northern Devon can take pride in this as a regional first. The Petroc team and their students should be very proud of themselves.
