General information Location: Jubilee Campus, Nottingham University, United Kingdom Sunshine hours (yearly average): 230 hours Type of project: Educational Type of application: BIPV Time for design process: 18 months Time for construction: March 1998 to September 1999 Realization: 1999 [ Top ] Description It is 50 years since Nottingham University gained its Royal Charter. During this time it has cultivated a reputation for promoting environmentally conscious design. True to the University’s principles, the aim of this new campus is to be a model of sustainable development for the Region. Its purpose is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 70%, raise awareness of environmental issues amongst students and within the field of tertiary education, demonstrate the viability of sustainable industrial regeneration and achieve these objectives within existing funding structures and levels. The design team won the commission for the GBP 25,5 M project in a competition held in 1996. Funding assistance of GBP 0,75M for the low-energy building specification and solar-powered ventilation strategy was gained through the European Union’s THERMIE programme as a demonstration project in 1998. [ Top ] System characteristics PV system power: SMF atria 1: 12 kW SMF atria 2: 12 kW DCS: 18,5 kW FOE: 18,5 kW Type of building integration: Atria Roof integrated. Black, mounted between 6 mm heat toughened glass (low iron) Type of cell technology: Mono-crystalline square cells Module dimensions: Nine different module designs, in terms of size, shape and cell density, were used. These were designed to meet the needs of physical integration and shading levels for different positions on the facade. All the modules are rectangular but two types are trapezium shaped to fit around the entrance area.Size of the modules used range from 0,93 m2 (70 Watt) to 262 m2 (285 Watt). Inverters: - [ Top ] Project cost breakdown One of the challenging aspects of the design and construction was the requirement to achieve an outstanding, innovative project in a very short time period and within a tight budget. To reduce the pressure on the budget and to enable the client to include innovative, ‘green’ equipment such as the wind cowls and the photovoltaic installation an application was made to the European Commission. The application was successful and an EU Thermie grant of GBP 750 000 was made available for the development of the zero CO2 ventilation system including the PV system and also to fund monitoring in the first year of occupancy. The total cost of the main buildings was GBP 25,5 m, an average of GBP  900 per square metre (GBP 1 225 for the learning resource centre and GBP 880 for the faculty buildings). The design team has effectively shown that 'green design' need not mean high cost. [ Top ] Performance characteristics The total energy output of the PV installation is 51 MWH per year with a peak output capacity of 53,3 kWp. Part of the requirements of the Thermie Grant was to monitor the installed equipment and report back to the European Commission on the achieved figures. These are currently monitored with more than 40 data-points on internal temperatures, water, electricity and gas consumption collected by the faculty of the Built Environment. The information collected is not yet generally available. Monitoring is usually seen as expensive luxury and therefore not applied on other projects, whereas here it was included as part of the Thermie Grant and therefore helps the client to understand and operate the building in the most efficient way. On completion of the services installation commissioning of the systems proved to be less time consuming because the systems were designed for low-pressure drop and simplicity. All control points were monitored by the building management system and linked back to the client’s main campus offices. [ Top ] Project team Client: Nottingham University University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD Tel.: 0115 951 5151 Fax: 0115 951 3636 Email: international-enquiries@nottingham.ac.uk Website: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/estate/nc/info.htm http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/univ/campus-plan/jubilee-index.html Project architects: Michael Hopkins and Partners PV Design: Michael Hopkins and Partners and Ove Arup and Partners Engineers: Ove Arup and Partners Electrical Contractor: N G Bailey PV manufacture: BP Solar [ Top ]