Energy and Water

Work has begun on a transformative heat decarbonisation project that involves the installation of a water source heat pump in the University's Energy Centre. Currently, this facility supplies heating and hot water to 17 buildings on the Whiteknights campus via an underground district heating network (DHN), primarily powered by gas. The project is supported by a £2.2 million grant from the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero’s Green Heat Network Fund. This substantial grant, which is being matched by the University, will play a pivotal role in achieving a 10% reduction in carbon emissions across the University's built estate.…

The project Over the yearlong course from winter 2021-2022, we have successfully upgraded components of several Air Handling Units (AHUs) across our university campuses (Whiteknights, Greenland’s and London Road) in order to save huge amounts of energy and carbon. This sustainability project was funded by the Department for Energy and Net Zero, under the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) and delivered by Salix. The upgrades oversaw ten inverters and ten fan motors replaced within five older, inefficient AHUs. The units were replaced on a like for like basis, with more modern fittings and higher efficiencies where appropriate. All the AHUs…

During Autumn 2021, new Solar PV arrays were installed across 7 buildings on Whiteknights campus creating a huge annual energy and carbon saving. The project was delivered by Salix, and funded by the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS), whereby a grant was awarded to The University in order for us to be able to carry out such instalments to meet our net zero by 2030 target. What is a Solar PV array? A Solar PV array is an assembly of photovoltaic panels, that are most commonly known as solar panels. Across our university campuses in total, we have 3400 solar…

               During Spring 2021, several energy saving improvements to the Building Management System (BMS) were installed. The upgrades are part of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) delivered by Salix and funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. We received a grant from Salix in 2020 for sustainable fixtures such as the BMS improvements, where for this project £84,108 of the total grant was used. The central BMS improvements included updates to various Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, which in turn digitalised our heating system making them easier to track and…

During the summer of 2021, LED lighting upgrade projects were undertaken across all three of our major campuses; London Road, Greenlands, and Whiteknights, with an additional specialist project at Minghella film studios. The new and more efficient instalments have positively impacted energy consumption and lighting load creating huge savings as a result, which has been an effective step towards our net zero for 2030 any other projects strategy. The LED lighting upgrades are a Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme project (PSDS), delivered by Salix and funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. This project is just one of…

Back in 2020, the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme grants, delivered by Salix and funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero for energy saving projects that were carried out over the period of 2021-22. Since then, we have successfully used the grant to carry out multiple projects across our university campuses that have reduced our environmental impact. The University has a mission to become carbon net zero by 2050, and so projects such as this one is an important step for us. One of our successful projects is the CEDAR farm refrigerator replacement. CEDAR farm is the Centre…

As a University our de-carbonising strategy is to be carbon–net zero by 2030. This target means that the sustainability team are working to find new ways to reduce the total energy and gas we use, to make progress towards our goal. With success in 2021, Dr. Samantha Mudie who now works in the sustainability department at Reading, oversaw the installation of new and more efficient catering appliances in our on-campus food outlets which helped saved a total of 67.9 tonnes of carbon per annum. The project, which was funded by Salix, involved intensive monitoring work that administered the replacement of…