University wins national award for its 21st Century energy-saving heat and power system

The University of Southampton has won a prestigious Green Gown Award for Energy and Efficiency for its innovative and highly efficient combined heat and power (CHP) system.

The £3 million system, which reduces the University's carbon emissions by over 2000 tonnes of CO2 a year, was formally opened last year by Minister of State for Climate and the Environment, Ian Pearson MP.

The Green Gown Awards, which are made by the Higher Education Environmental Performance Improvement project (HEEPI), recognise innovative sustainable actions by universities and colleges across the UK.

The University of Southampton's award-winning system is powered by two combined heat and power (CHP) generators, each producing 1400kW of electricity and 1600kW of heat. The generators feed into the University's high voltage electricity system and district heating system, both of which serve its Highfield campus.

The system reduces the Highfield campus carbon emissions by over 20 per cent a year, and this is set to increase to 23 per cent when more buildings are connected. In the past year alone, the system has provided a net saving of £32k on heating and power costs.

Mark Turner, Energy and Design Engineer at the University, said: "We are delighted that the system has been recognised with a Green Gown Award. The success of this system shows that if large organisations can find the funds to invest in state-of-the-art sustainable energy systems, they can make a huge difference to their carbon emissions as well as saving money in the long term."