Forum for an Ecobuilding refit of the Westgate Centre

It took a small team of us two days to put solar panels on the roof of the Globe pub in Jericho. A pub that many people were understandably upset about losing will now produce zero carbon electricity (plus the amount of energy used to make the panels which are guaranteed for 25 years).

We installed enough panels to produce 1,700kilowatt hours a year. The average house uses around 3,000 kilowatt hours per year. So with judicious choosing of low energy appliances (LED lightbulbs, low-energy-rated fridges etc), this ex pub should be able to live a carbon free existence for the next 25 years.

Obviously the outlay on these panels was expensive but with energy prices rising and set to rise further in this time, added to the fact that when nobody is in the house the owner will be able to get an increasingly better price for selling power back to the national grid, it will take a lot less than previously expected for the owner to make his money back. Should his panels continue to work after the guarantee runs out then he should be laughing.

Oxford has one of the highest concentrations of environmentalists in the world. We promote and support the environmental message around the world. We have the School for the Built Environment up at Oxford Brookes University. The Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University, thanks to Brenda Boardman, has produced the brilliant 40% House report (available to all) that shows how to bring our energy use in housing down to 40% of its current levels.
There are environmental conultancies like ERM, AEA and Best Foot Forward, that are all able to make studies of the problem of the present massive wastage of energy in the Westgate and do something about it.

The Norfolk Square area where the London Plane trees were tragically felled could, rather than be used for a massive expansion of the Westgate, to position a CHP Boiler room (Combined Heat and Power). This could heat the whole of the Westgate and the waste heat be used to power either turbines or engines to produce electricity, too. This would mean less outlay on solar panels on the roof.

These are just initial ideas. I'm not in any way saying that they are the best ones around. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of brilliant people in Oxford all with small slices of the best plan for the Westgate. Let's get in touch and build something we can be proud of rather than something we will have to endure until the next expansion...