Elliot Morley MP, Minister for Climate Change and Environment, saw renewable energy
in action today at the award-winning ‘zero emissions’ office of Renewable Energy
Systems Ltd (RES) in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, and praised the role renewables and
energy efficiency can play in the drive to cut climate-changing emissions. On a tour
hosted by RES and the UK Business Council for Sustainable Energy, Mr Morley also
met local schoolchildren who were learning about renewable energy and climate
change.
The Minister said:
“This is a unique facility. RES has developed a building into a sympathetic conversion
that has very high standards of energy efficiency and renewable energy generation –
something I'm very pleased to see. Projects like these not only provide a real benefit in
reducing energy costs and cutting emissions, they also act as a very effective teaching
tool.”
On a tour of Beaufort Court, formerly the Ovaltine Egg Farm, the Minister saw a range of
renewable energy technologies, including a huge solar power array that generates both
heat and electricity, five hectares of the energy crop ‘Elephant Grass’, which is burned in
a biomass boiler to heat the office, a natural cooling system using water drawn from
deep underground and the now famous wind turbine situated next to the M25. He was
also shown how the much-loved 1930s buildings have been sensitively converted into a
groundbreaking zero-emissions head office for RES, one of the world’s leading wind
power developers.
The visit was hosted by RES Group Managing Director, Dr Ian Mays, who said:
“At Beaufort Court we have demonstrated how renewable energy technologies can be
integrated successfully into buildings and the landscape and can generate clean, green
heat and power. The development – particularly the wind turbine - is popular with the
local community and has become a beacon of sustainable development for the area and
an international case study in zero-emissions design.“
David Green, Chief Executive of the UK Business Council for Sustainable Energy said:
“As we approach a major Energy Review, Beaufort Court is an important reminder of
how our buildings can become self-reliant on energy and make a serious contribution to
tackling climate change. Appropriate use of renewable energy, and promoting the
highest standards of energy efficiency, needs to be more systematically integrated,
especially in the public sector.”
Beaufort Court also houses a popular Visitor Centre, which runs tours and educational
events for schools, community groups and professionals. Mr Morley met pupils from
Bridgewater School in Berkhamsted who presented project work they had been doing on
climate change and renewable energy, including working models of a wind turbine and
solar power.
ENDS
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