Transport for London unveils UK's largest hydrogen fuel cell

New technology part of wide-ranging green building makeover.
Cath Everett, BusinessGreen
guardian.co.uk, Monday 22 February 2010 12.28 GMT
Transport for London (TfL) hopes to cut its carbon emissions by 40 per cent and save £90,000 per annum on utility bills with a newly unveiled green power plant at its head office that includes the UK's largest hydrogen fuel cell.
TfL and the London Development Agency (LDA), which is housed in the same building, also announced last week that they plan to sign up to the 10:10 energy efficiency campaign from this April.
As a result, they have committed to reduce carbon emissions by a further 10 per cent and cut energy bills by £400,000 over the next financial year.
The £2.4m combined heat and power plant, which was unveiled late last week, is located at TfL's Palestra building in Southwark and was implemented as part of a major green retrofit.
The plant is expected to supply all the facility's power needs at off-peak times and 25 per cent of requirements during peak hours.
Waste heat will also be pumped into a unit on the roof to ensure the building keeps cool and supplement its six existing electric chillers.
The hydrogen fuel cell, which was funded out of TfL's £25m Climate Change Fund, will likewise provide electricity, heat and cooling and provide the office's hot water supply.
Speaking at the opening of the new facilities, Kit Malthouse, deputy mayor of London and chairman of the London Hydrogen Partnership, said: "Zero-polluting hydrogen fuel has the potential to radically transform the way we power our city to create a more pleasant environment. This isn't a fuel of the future but is available right now."
He added that "to catalyse its use more widely", the technology's benefits would be promoted to visitors and passers-by via a permanent multimedia exhibition display fuelled by energy generated on the site.
In a bid to meet its 10:10 commitments, TfL likewise plans to cut general waste and paper consumption at its 32 sites and to retrofit 22 of them in accordance with the Building Energy Efficiency Programme.
Solar panels will be introduced to heat water, while green roofs will be installed to boost insulation, absorb rainwater and improve local ecology.
The deployment of new building management software is also planned to control temperature, heating and cooling systems more effectively, while new energy management and enhanced automated meter reading systems will be similarly installed.
Low-condensing NOx boilers will replace old ones in three buildings and 2,500 lights will be swapped for energy-efficient replacements. About 1,000 halogen lamps will likewise be replaced with low-energy LED lights that should cut energy consumption by 90 per cent and improve lamp life by 25 times.
The company said that alongside the building improvements, a staff awareness programme will be launched from April to encourage personnel to cut their energy consumption.
In broader terms, the organisation plans to spend £23m on green programmes over the next year to help Londoners reduce their carbon emissions. For example, TfL is planning to introduce a public cycle hire scheme in the capital later this year and also aims to add 300 new diesel-electric hybrid buses to its current fleet of 56 by March 2011, after which time all new additions will have to be hybrids.