Taking the heat

Countering the impacts on industry, helping the elderly keep warm in winter…  Yorkshire Forward is testing innovative ways of tackling the effects of climate change. Trevor Lawson reports.

From the sawmill that he manages, Jonathan Bower gets a very clear view of the mighty, brown sinew of the river Humber, just before it sweeps around the kneecap of North Lincolnshire. Flowing right past him is the run-off from almost 20% of England, in the country’s largest single output of fresh water into the North Sea.

While the Humber is a friend to Howarth Timber, which imports Forest Stewardship Council-approved softwood timber through the river’s deepwater channel, it’s also a potential foe. In the Environment Agency’s flood defence map for the region, the mill sits in the worryingly entitled “flood cell unit 6/3”. “The standard of protection provided by the unit’s defences will deteriorate as sea levels rise,” warns the Agency.

“It’s a huge mass of water,” says Bower, pointing out that it’s a 30-minute walk across the river by bridge. “We haven’t been flooded yet, but we are right on the bank. Depending on the scale, a flood could hit us quite badly. There’s the risk of stock damage, and the high value machinery in the sawmill is obviously not designed to be submerged.”

“The Earth doesn’t charge for its heat, so ground source heat pumps are fantastically efficient.”

The company is already being advised by the Carbon Trust on how to minimise its own contribution to global warming, but what about knowing how to plan for the risks? The company decided to take matters into its own hands and attend a novel seminar run by the Building Research Establishment on behalf of Yorkshire Forward. “It’s about looking forward as a business,” he explains. “It’s personal, too. I have three daughters, and we have to be concerned about the legacy that we are leaving for our children.”

Designed to help businesses figure out what risks lie ahead for them, each seminar kicks off with a quiz to get staff thinking. “It comes as a surprise to them that claims for flood and storm damage have increased by 100% over just five years, which means that insurance premiums are going up for everybody,” says BRE’s Neil Paterson, who runs the sessions. An architect by training, he warns that companies’ property assets may start devaluing as a result of climate change: “Many heavily glazed, lightweight 1960s office buildings are energy-inefficient. Without improving the building fabric and cutting back on energy-intensive air conditioning, you could see the asset value diminish. The company’s reputation as a sustainable, forward-thinking business will also be eroded and it will face higher energy bills that make it less competitive.”

Outside the business are other risks. During floods, entire transport infrastructures can grind to a halt. Raw materials and other supplies can be destroyed or simply become unobtainable, while finished products can’t be moved to markets. “The toolkit we provide helps companies assess risks and take steps to prepare for them,” says Neil. “Climate change, in effect, is now a fundamental part of smart business planning.”

Across the region as a whole, Yorkshire Forward aims to deliver a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 20% by 2010, in line with the UK’s target. And it has good reason. After London, Yorkshire is the region most at risk from flooding and other climate change-induced disasters. More than 300,000 people live on low-lying land in the Humber Estuary and are at risk of flooding from the sea. Existing defences have been battered by increasingly powerful waves and many are now falling close to disrepair.

Keeping the region warm

Yorkshire Forward is also planning for people, as well as businesses, in a world of high fuel prices and scarce energy. Government statistics suggest that households in England affected by fuel poverty fell from 5.1 million in 1996 to 1.2 million in 2004. But Age Concern warns that energy price hikes and the falling value of the Winter Fuel Payment in real terms “are likely to have caused the number of pensioner households in fuel poverty to more than double since 2004”.

“It’s shocking to meet an elderly lady who is still shifting heavy buckets of inefficient coal to keep herself warm in the winter.”

Will Davies, who is currently leading a new Yorkshire Forward and DTI initiative to address fuel poverty in the region, has first hand experience of the consequences: “It’s shocking to meet an elderly lady who is still shifting heavy buckets of inefficient coal to keep herself warm in the winter,” he says. Although some grants and discounts are available for insulation and other warming measures, take-up is patchy and entire communities frequently remain chilly energy ghettoes, with unhappy residents paying a lot of money and unintentionally contributing to global warming by using carbon-intensive heating systems and wasting energy.

Community Energy Solutions (CES), supported by the DTI, Yorkshire Forward and One Northeast, came into existence in September 2006 to help communities of 50 or more homes, using a combination of gas networks and renewable energy. With a target of helping 4,000 homes in 20 urban and rural communities, CES has a major challenge on its hands. Its focus is on getting the infrastructures and contracts right, bringing together the many different partners - including energy companies, local authorities and housing associations - needed to make the plans work on the ground.

Large gas connection projects are less challenging to arrange, he says: “There’s an established, well-understood procedure.” But large renewable energy projects, using energy from the ground or the air, with heat pump technology, are a different matter. “There’s discomfort with the unknown, so the challenge for us is to put together a package that is cost-effective but which takes out any risk for the housing association or local authority client. It’s also about managing user behaviour and expectations. A common problem is that householders think the system isn’t working because the radiators aren’t very hot to the touch.”

When the schemes go ahead, they will literally be groundbreaking. In Sweden, 95% of new homes use ground-sourced energy to keep them warm, but in Britain such technology is still little used. It’s a missed opportunity: the ground is at a constant temperature for most of the year. The liquid in a thin pipe, running through the ground for around 80 metres, warms gently. Then, a compressor system increases the heat temperature and releases this warmth into the house radiators and the hot water tank.

“The Earth doesn’t charge for its heat, so it’s fantastically efficient,” says Davies. For every unit of electricity used to run the heat pump, four units of energy are generated. “The ground loop has a life of more than 50 years and the heat pump, unlike a boiler, requires little servicing and has a life of 20 years. So while the capital costs of installation are higher than gas, the running costs are between one third and a half of the cost of gas,” he says.

“Climate change looks to be inevitable,” says Mike Smith, head of sustainable development for Yorkshire Forward. “But projects like these, which focus on supporting society and business, should help to ensure that Yorkshire copes with what lies ahead.”

Trevor Lawson is a writer and consultant on countryside issues.

12 January 2007

Trevor Lawson