Keele University has seen off competition from across the UK to win a prestigious Green Energy Award for its groundbreaking Smart Energy Network Demonstrator (SEND) and Low Carbon Energy Generation Park.
The Green Energy Awards, led by renewable energy strategists Regen, are assessed by national and global leaders in the green energy industry, and celebrate the fantastic work of organisations all over the country that are championing smart, sustainable, low carbon energy systems.
Keele took home the top prize in the Clean Energy Scheme Award category, which commends projects that are “spearheading the clean energy industry and delivering significant carbon savings”.
The SEND project at Keele uses the campus as an at-scale “living laboratory” for the smart generation, distribution, storage, forecasting and balancing of energy across the campus.
A significant part of the SEND project is the campus renewable energy park which is providing up to 50% of the campus’ electricity from renewable sources, featuring 12,500 solar panels, two wind turbines, and an industrial sized battery for storing the energy.
Professor Mark Ormerod, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost, and Institutional Lead for Sustainability at Keele University, said: “I am delighted that we have won this prestigious Green Energy Award for our pioneering and highly innovative work in developing our University campus as a genuine living laboratory for low carbon energy systems, which are essential to reducing carbon emissions and a future more sustainable, low carbon society.
“I am very proud of what we have achieved at Keele University, working in partnership with some outstanding, forward-thinking external organisations, particularly our partners at Siemens and Equans. This success is the result of the tremendous efforts and innovation of colleagues over many years.”
