{"id":881,"date":"2024-06-19T14:49:35","date_gmt":"2024-06-19T13:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/?p=881"},"modified":"2025-04-08T10:37:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T09:37:09","slug":"combining-energy-and-sustainability-upgrading-newcastle-universitys-merz-court-energy-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/2024\/06\/19\/combining-energy-and-sustainability-upgrading-newcastle-universitys-merz-court-energy-centre\/","title":{"rendered":"Combining energy and sustainability: upgrading Newcastle University&#8217;s Merz Court Energy Centre"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Heating and powering our campus is one of the University\u2019s largest sources of carbon dioxide emissions and so work to improve the efficiency of these systems is very effective at reducing our institution\u2019s impact on the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To this end, a major project the University is currently undertaking is the installation of a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant in Merz Court\u2019s Energy Centre. This new infrastructure has required the work of a variety of University teams alongside multiple external companies to plan this major energy upgrade and coordinate its installation. Now, as the completion of the project is coming into view, this blog will explore how CHP systems work, and how the University\u2019s new power plant is set to save significant emissions for years to come!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Installing a Combined Heat and Power Plant | Newcastle University Sustainable Campus\" width=\"625\" height=\"352\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bf9KefACm7M?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Video: A timelapse of the night-time delivery and craning of the CHP unit into the underground Merz Court Energy centre.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What impact will this have?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Combined heat and power or \u2018cogeneration\u2019 plants increase efficiencies by utilising the waste heat generated when creating electricity to warm buildings. These systems are especially effective when hooked up to district heating networks \u2013 where one energy centre powers multiple buildings. So, when different teams were coming together to plan the power supply for the newly refurbished <a href=\"https:\/\/from.ncl.ac.uk\/bringing-sustainable-design-to-the-stephenson-building\">Stephenson Building<\/a>, an upgrade to our existing district heating network centred in Merz Court fit the bill nicely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, after lots of hard work from many colleagues across the University, the new 27-tonne CHP engine has been successfully installed in Merz Court\u2019s Energy Centre! On top of the improved efficiencies of cogeneration systems, the University\u2019s new CHP uses greener biofuel to generate its heat and electricity \u2013 greatly reducing carbon emissions as compared to conventional systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, the CHP\u2019s impact on carbon savings will be further reinforced as Merz Court Energy Centre\u2019s district heating is connected to a whole swathe of the campus, including the:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Henry Daysh Building,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Stephenson Building,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>King Edward VII Building,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Percy Building,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Old Library Building,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>And Merz Court itself!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Across these buildings, the CHP\u2019s lower carbon factor energy will pull down our campus\u2019s carbon emissions by thousands of tonnes a year. Additionally, after recent progress, the first batch of biofuel has now been delivered and we\u2019re happy to announce that the new system will be generating power for the next heating season!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"678\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2024\/06\/Merz-Court-entrance-1024x678.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-882\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2024\/06\/Merz-Court-entrance-1024x678.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2024\/06\/Merz-Court-entrance-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2024\/06\/Merz-Court-entrance-768x509.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2024\/06\/Merz-Court-entrance-1536x1017.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2024\/06\/Merz-Court-entrance-624x413.jpg 624w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/files\/2024\/06\/Merz-Court-entrance.jpg 1999w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Image: The entrance to Newcastle University\u2019s School of Electrical and Electronic engineering housed in Merz Court above the newly upgraded Energy Centre. Credit: Chris Bishop.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Find out more<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many thanks to all the teams involved in delivering the various stages of this project. If you\u2019re interested in finding out more about the University\u2019s power system and how we\u2019re reducing emissions, explore our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainable-campus\/themes\/energy\/\">energy<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainable-campus\/themes\/carbon\/\">carbon<\/a> webpages. Additionally, this blog has information on the University\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/?s=energy\">renewable power projects and research<\/a> and our institution-wide, accredited <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/2023\/06\/16\/what-are-environmental-and-energy-management-systems\/\">Energy Management System<\/a>. Finally, the University\u2019s Energy Policy can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainable-campus\/assets\/energy-policy\/\">here<\/a>, and you can get involved with a variety of sustainability programmes and groups across the University as either a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainable-campus\/play-your-part\/student-action\/\">student<\/a> or a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainable-campus\/play-your-part\/colleague-action\/\">colleague<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Heating and powering our campus is one of the University\u2019s largest sources of carbon dioxide emissions and so work to improve the efficiency of these systems is very effective at reducing our institution\u2019s impact on the environment. To this end, a major project the University is currently undertaking is the installation of a Combined Heat [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11771,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,11,22],"tags":[94,95,97,92,96,93],"class_list":["post-881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-blogs","category-carbon","category-news","tag-chp","tag-cogeneration","tag-district-heating","tag-energy","tag-merz-court","tag-power"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11771"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":883,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881\/revisions\/883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/sustainability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}