With the education estate responsible for 37% of public sector building emissions, decarbonising this sector is key to achieving government net zero targets, driving down energy use and bills for schools, and improving building conditions. However, progress remains slow. Insightful presentations from Baxi’s speaker panel highlighted the advances that has already been made, the shared enthusiasm for decarbonisation, and the hurdles that need to be overcome to accelerate progress across the education estate.
Jeff House, Baxi’s Director of External Affairs and Policy, presented the results of a Baxi survey of school energy estates managers and heating professionals to understand the attitudes and challenges related to decarbonising heat in schools. While respondents reported widespread experience in decarbonisation, technical difficulty, energy infrastructure, financing and risks were perceived as core challenges.
Jeff remarked: “The results of the survey were extremely encouraging with respondents reporting that heat pumps have been very well received. Interestingly, the results showed a slight preference for selecting hybrid heat pump systems in schools, perhaps as a practical solution to the challenges identified in older buildings.”
Paul Chambers, Deputy Director, Public Sector Decarbonisation at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, provided an update on the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme and the Government’s strategy for decarbonising heat.
With finance, capacity and capability, and information and incentives identified as the main barriers, Paul summarised the Government-related programmes to address these areas. These included Great British Energy’s first investment activities to install rooftop solar power in schools and complementary decarbonisation technologies (£80m for schools: £40m GB Energy, £40m DfE) and the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) Sector Cap for education. Paul noted that between Phase 1 and Phase 3c of the PSDS, over £250 million has been awarded to schools and academies directly. This excludes funding for schools from grants awarded to local authorities.
Will Attlee, Head of Net Zero and Estates Strategy at LocatED, advisors to the education sector and government, provided an overview of the Net Zero Accelerator programme. The scheme is supporting 200 schools and colleges with the aim to facilitate the rapid roll out decarbonisation initiatives across the education estate, including behaviour change programmes, M&E upgrades, energy efficiency and heat decarbonisation.
Both Paul and Will identified the scale of the education estate and its diversity in terms of organisations and buildings as challenges to decarbonisation. At the same time, they emphasised the opportunity that decarbonisation offers to support green skills for the future and deliver social value.
The importance of collaboration was a common thread through all presentations. Will commented: “Good things can happen if we work together and try and address the challenges whilst focussing on the opportunity. Through careful investment, by focussing on the interventions that make the biggest impact, a lot can be achieved.”
Delegates heard next from James Carter, National Sales Manager at Oakes Energy Services, specialists in decarbonisation retrofit, who provided best practice tips on installing heat pumps. Early engagement with the Distribution Network Operator, detailed planning and design, close engagement with suppliers, energy monitoring, commissioning and recommissioning were all identified as key to optimising heat pump performance.
James stressed the importance of considering different design options to achieve optimal results and peak efficiency, as well as system monitoring. “This isn’t like replacing a gas boiler with a gas boiler,” he said. “System monitoring is absolutely key to ensure that the system continues to perform at its most efficient. It justifies the investment as the client can see what it’s saved in carbon and financially.”
Internal Energy Consultant Jim Kirby from the Priory Federation of Academies Trust shared first-hand experience of decarbonising a series of swimming pool buildings across four schools, partnering with Oakes and Baxi. The Trust has the ambition to be carbon neutral by 2040. Jim discussed the need to recognise that the carbon target is moving due to new buildings being built and increased staff and pupil numbers.
Pointing out that there is no silver bullet to decarbonisation, he outlined the various renewable technologies the Trust is using to achieve its goal, from air source heat pumps (ASHPs) to solar panels and batteries. “ASHP is a new technology which takes time to bed in and for site staff to gain confidence in working on it. You have to be able to work with your ASHP installer who has to choose the right kit and then install it correctly. Oakes Energy and Baxi have provided that.”
Rounding off the presentations with analysis of the impact of different forms of interventions, Andy Green, Head of Technical Solutions at Baxi, emphasised the need to understand the building’s energy profile and the school’s goals before designing a solution. Providing a use case of a typical 300-pupil primary school, using simulation software he explored three options – boiler replacement, a hybrid heat pump solution and an all-electric solution – and the carbon, energy consumption and energy cost implications of each.
Predictably, carbon emission reduction was greatest from the all-electric solution, however the spark gap, or difference between electricity and gas costs, also drove an increase in operational costs. Andy concluded: “An all-electric approach will deliver higher operational efficiency but with higher operational cost. With a marginal increase in energy costs and reduced capital expenditure, a hybrid heat pump solution could be a good early step to set the path to net zero.”
Jeff House concluded: “If schools are to keep on track for 2050 net zero, heat decarbonisation needs to accelerate rapidly in their existing building stock. Our event brought together stakeholders from education, government, heating and technology to share their valuable expertise and insights into decarbonising heat in existing schools, celebrate the success to date and discuss potential ways of driving progress.
“Perhaps unsurprisingly, there was widespread agreement on the core challenges schools currently face in achieving more sustainable heating. We hope that with this exchange of knowledge and experience, we can work together to remove these hurdles and help set schools on their net zero roadmap.”
Read the survey report here.