EVLN(London solar electric 'pool car')

[Bruce EVangel Parmenter <brucedp@yahoo.com>]

EVLN(London solar electric 'pool car')
[The Internet Electric Vehicle List News. For Public EV
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http://panda.org/news/features/story.cfm?id=3041
July 2002  Building the future
By Jean-Paul Jeanrenaud and Pooran Desai*  24 July 2002

A pioneering housing development in southwest London could
be the start of a worldwide housing revolution.

Oak weatherboarding sourced from local, managed woodlands. ©
BioRegional, UK

First wood chip delivery (from tree-surgery waste) to
combined heat/power plant. © BioRegional, UK Imagine a
housing development

constructed from sustainable resources that uses no fossil
fuels, produces no net CO2, recycles household waste,
provides a crèche, sports club, and solar-powered electric
car, is located in a desirable area — and is affordable.
Sounds too good to be true? The truth is that this
futuristic place already exists, in southwest London.

Beddington Zero-Energy Development (BedZED) is
sustainability in practice. This ground-breaking,
energy-efficient eco-village comprises some 80 homes and
enough office and work space for 200 people, all tucked away
in the south London borough of Sutton, UK.

The pioneering initiative was born from an idea conceived
and initiated by the BioRegional Development Group — which
has a vision of local sustainability — and leading architect
Bill Dunster. BedZED was developed by the Peabody Trust,
which is committed to providing high-quality, affordable
housing for people on low incomes. The Trust has partners
from the mainstream engineering, construction, and quantity
surveying companies Arup, Ellis and Moore, and Gardiner and
Theobald. The conservation organization WWF also supported
the project from the beginning.

Work began on the brownfield site in May 2000. In the words
of the developers, the aim was "to make sustainability easy,
attractive, and affordable”. The overall objective is to
enable people to live in a sustainable way — within an
‘ecological footprint’ of two hectares, the per capita
environmental space available globally — but without
sacrificing the comforts and advantages of a modern, mobile
lifestyle.

This approach paid off, and by July the same year the
project had won a prestigious Royal Institute of Builders
and Architects (RIBA) award for excellence in housing
design. BedZED is now nearing completion, with the first
residents moving in.

Apart from producing no net CO2 from energy use and using no
fossil fuels, BedZED addresses a range of environmental,
social, and economic concerns. For example, Forest
Stewardship Council (FSC) certified timber and reclaimed
steel were used for construction. In addition, most
construction materials were sourced within a 60km radius of
the site, reducing pollution and environmental damage by
minimizing freight transport.

BedZED derives all its energy from renewable sources. The
homes are highly energy efficient: heating is reduced by 90
per cent and total energy consumption by 70 per cent
compared to conventional homes. The development also
incorporates combined heat and power generation as well as
state-of-the art photovoltaics for solar electricity. In
addition, a solar electric car pool has been set up for use
by the householders.

The development harvests rainwater, uses water-saving
appliances and systems, and recycles sewage water through a
reedbed “Living Machine”. Household waste is also recycled.

The homes are for sale at comparable prices to conventional
houses in the area, with 60 per cent of the homes retained
by The Peabody Trust for people on low incomes. By using
local materials, the project has supported local economic
development and at the same time created a number of new
jobs related to maintaining the water treatment systems,
power plant, woodchip supply, car pool, and local food
deliveries. In addition the eco- village will have a range
of community facilities such as a healthy living centre,
sports club and playing fields, village square, crèche, and
café.

As a result of the success of this pilot project, WWF,
BioRegional, and Bill Dunster Architects have teamed up with
the Midrand EcoCity Project and a number of business
partners† to make a twin BedZED in South Africa. The “Zero
Energy Development” (ZED), located in Ivory Park in the
Johannesburg area, has the full support and involvement of
the local community, which has land and planning permission
for an eco-village development of 30 homes and a community
centre.

Working with South African architects and engineers, the ZED
team will adapt the design strategies for application in
South Africa. The aim is to build low cost, very high
environmental performance buildings that reduce energy
needs, maximize on-site opportunities for renewable energy,
and minimize water consumption. The project will also
include water recycling facilities. The returns from energy
efficiency and renewable energy are particularly great in
South Africa, where electricity supplied by the national
grid is generated by inefficient and polluting coal-fired
installations.

This is just the beginning of what could prove to be a
worldwide housing revolution. The existing partners are
interested in rolling out the concept, initially at a
regional level and subsequently developing a series of
twinning projects across the globe. The future is ZED!

*Jean-Paul Jeanrenaud is Head of Business and Industry
 Relations at WWF International, and Pooran Desai is
 Director of the BioRegional Development Group.

†Lafarge; Body Shop Foundation; ARUP; Global Forest Products.
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