As the manufacturing industry struggles with rising energy costs and pressure to decarbonise, an energy solution, which couldn’t come at a better time for businesses, has been successfully installed at AMRC Northwest in Lancashire.
Two battery energy storage systems (BESS) supplied by Connected Energy have been successfully integrated on the site to link to a range of renewable technologies.
This marks an important stage for the UK’s manufacturing sector as the AMRC Northwest site is the most advanced low carbon smart building demonstrator created specifically for this strategically important sector. The installation is designed to show how energy costs and carbon emissions can be controlled by manufacturers of all sizes, and in buildings of any age.
The BESS will be linked to two types of photovoltaic panels, one standard rooftop array and another comprising two smart flowers which open and track the sun through the day. It will enable the site, part of the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre’s (AMRC) network of research and innovation centres, to store and use its own clean energy, always keeping the centre on its green tariff and serving as the data ‘heart’ of a new fully digitised building and manufacturing site.
With operational machinery and production lines using the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) the site will be a manufacturing energy ‘show home’. It will allow manufacturers see how they can achieve what, at present, might seem impossible – manage and reduce energy bills, reduce carbon emissions and yet increase energy consumption and security.
The £2.5m project at AMRC Northwest, supported by the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership (LEP) through the government’s Getting Building Fund (GBF), will create a road map for manufacturers that will enable them to cut the carbon footprint of older facilities and achieve net zero by 2050.
Ben Smith, low carbon smart building specialist at AMRC Northwest said:
