by Denis Gross
Although only in existence since 1967, Milton Keynes can claim to be one of the most successful commercial centres in the UK. Since it was established, its population has almost quadrupled, to 230,000 from 60,000, and it is expected to grow by a further 50% by 2025. Milton Keynes has seen dramatic growth in jobs as businesses have started up and flourished in the city, and as major nationals and multinationals have set up facilities and offices. Inward investment stands as a significant achievement and, as the city reasserts its leading-edge low carbon and sustainability credentials, cleantech companies are expected to assume an increasing share of the newcomer business population.
Milton Keynes was planned as a city in the country, with around 40% of its area set aside for green space. The city has been developed as low density and designed on the grid principle. From the outset, Milton Keynes has implemented stringent building regulations: it was the first city in the UK to adopt energy standards in buildings, and is on track to be the first in the UK to generate over 10% of its energy supply from renewable sources on site.
By addressing low carbon and sustainability on a coherent strategic basis, Milton Keynes is well placed to meet the challenge of the UK Climate Change Act and the requirements of a low carbon world. The city has initiated a number of projects designed to feature a range of interrelated new technologies, and is inviting companies to showcase their products and integrate them with other parts of the low carbon jigsaw puzzle.
These demonstrator projects are:
• Electric-powered transport
• Low energy commercial development
• Low energy residential development
• Waste management
• Power generation, distribution and metering. (Smart Grid)
Milton Keynes aims to coordinate all these projects centrally from the outset, rather than running them as separate, piecemeal developments, thus preparing the ground for a valuable test-bed experience.
In terms of electric-powered vehicles, Milton Keynes is one of nine cities and towns in the UK that signed up to the Joined-Cities Plan, unveiled at the Low Carbon Vehicle Show 2009 at the Millbrook vehicle testing ground in Bedfordshire last September. Millbrook, close to Milton Keynes, will provide full electric vehicle testing. The aim of the £11 million Joined-Cities Plan, launched by the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI), is to support the roll-out of a single national network that will ultimately enable plug-in vehicles to be easily used and recharged anywhere, including the home. ETI has formed an intelligent architecture advisory group to enable the Plan, which includes IBM, Siemens, Elektromotive, Coulomb Technologies and 365 Energy, combining the know-how and resources of major systems integrators and vehicle recharging network providers.
In addition, the city is bidding in the UK Government’s Plugged-In Places initiative, whereby £30 million in funding has been set aside for the development of between three and six electric car cities and regions in the UK to help shape future development of a national charging infrastructure.
As a modern city with low density development on a grid-based system, Milton Keynes is exceptionally well suited to be an electric vehicle test-bed. Furthermore, the high level of Government ownership of land in the city should ensure ready implementation. Consequently, Milton Keynes can be ambitious regarding electric vehicle infrastructure projects. With automotive majors Nissan, Mercedes and General Motors on the Advisory Panel, the project is targeting 1,000 vehicles across a three four year programme, with 430 charging posts in the city and 2,000 plug points in homes. Since there are around 23,000 surface car parking places across the city, it will be relatively easy to dedicate a proportion of these to charging posts.
The charging infrastructure is expected to change over time, so the city is keen to attract a range of products from different manufacturers, thus providing flexibility to adapt in a timely manner. Technologies being investigated include fast charging (e.g. three-phase) and inductive charging.
In addition, Milton Keynes is conscious of the need to win over the population to electric vehicle adoption, and inducements like free charging and free parking at city charging posts will all play a part in accelerating this market development.
With the electric vehicle infrastructure project, Milton Keynes expects to create significant opportunities for manufacturers of charging posts and fast charging systems, electric motors and regenerative systems, batteries and battery management and other subsystems.
Ideally, recharging electric vehicles would be carried out with electricity derived from renewable sources. Milton Keynes is moving rapidly to ensure this and, moreover, that the proportion of renewable electricity will exceed UK targets. Thus a combined heat and power (CHP) plant was installed in 2007, and future CHPs are expected.
Other initiatives include an anaerobic digestion plant (put out to tender), to provide a combination of electricity and gas from waste, and a live tender for solar photovoltaic installations on city centre commercial buildings.
In addition the Milton Keynes Windfarm is under construction, with completion expected in September 2010., With seven turbines, the windfarm is expected to generate around 38,000,000 kWh of electricity per year – enough to power over 8,000 homes.
Milton Keynes set up the first doorstep collection of recyclables in the UK as far back as 1979, and, with a comprehensive collection of household and garden waste in place, anaerobic digestion (AD) is a very appropriate technology. In Milton Keynes’s case, an AD design is being sought that efficiently processes both household and garden waste. AD is currently an exciting and important area with the potenital to meet up to 20% of the UK’s future energy needs.
The city’s energy projects are being underpinned by a comprehensive study on the size and nature of its carbon footprint today, and how this is changing over time. The research involves a large network of sensors linking homes, work and the electric vehicle infrastructure, with centralised data gathering by the University Centre Milton Keynes, and high level analysis by nearby Cranfield University. As part of this energy monitoring project, Milton Keynes is aiming to set up a national showcase for smart grid technology, including smart metering, and has put in a bid for £50 million of funding from the UK Government.
Energy efficiency in the built environment has always been paramount in the history of the city. In the commercial sphere this is reflected in Network Rail’s new national centre to be built on the current site of the National Hockey Stadium. The building is designed to be one of the most sustainable in Britain. Construction is scheduled to begin in summer 2010. The new building will house up to 3,000 workers.
The city’s housing stock (1967 and onwards) is of a very high standard and was designed for energy efficiency. Determined to be at the leading edge and ahead of the 2016 requirement that all new UK homes be zero-carbon rated, Milton Keynes has created a demonstrator project of fifty eco-homes, again intended as a national showcase for new technologies.
As well a major retro-fit programme to upgrade the energy efficiency of older houses, the city plans to build 72,000 new homes. One of the interesting parts of the study being carried out in conjunction with the demonstrator project is to establish how people live in the new houses. Details of the study are still evolving, but we can expect it to provide useful insights into the ways in which a different sections of the population utilise the new technologies supplied in the houses.
Invest Milton Keynes and Milton Keynes Council convey very strongly the message that the city is an enthusiastic trailblazer in the sustainable cities arena, and that companies who want to showcase their low carbon products and technologies are very welcome to participate in the projects reviewed in this article. As a candidate Host City for the 2018 World Cup, Milton Keynes is clearly upping its game – particularly as a platform for sport, transport, and sustainability.
