Out & About

The Clean, Green Energy machine that is Renewable Energy Systems Ltd. Finally, a Corporation doing something good. There can be little doubt about the heart & soul of an organisation that created its own super-low-carbon office building from a converted Chicken Farm. This isn't greenwash. They have obviously spent millions on this plot of land to make it a very showcase. The car park is tiny and there is one Company Car - a Prius of course! Practically the entire staff arrive by train. It must be one of the few Corporate HQ's in the world that members of the general public can get tours for. This is extraordinary seeing as they aren't selling to the Public. Their customers are big energy corporations and Governments.

The well-known RES Wind Turbine (above) is actually sited next to their football pitch. Why have a Car Park when you can play football? The area you see in this photo does have quite a large parking space but it isn't a car park as such as no spaces are marked. Its exact purpose is not clear but you can see it was used as a canvas for some chalk drawings.

RES's former Chicken House (above). It was owned by the Ovaltine Company for egg production. The eggs were used in their famous Ovaltine Hot Drink mix. The building is horse-shoe shaped to capture the heat of the sun. It is built in the 1920's "Arts & Crafts" style and the local Planning Authorities insisted that RES retain its external character. RES have heavily modified the internal structure and had to replace walls and roofs but they did well to preserve the beauty of the original building.

The RES football pitch (above). A number of traders and 'green' related exhibitors were there for the day. In the background we see the unique solar panels. These form the roof to their biomass storage facility where the Miscanthus dries off after harvesting. The solar panels are Photovoltaic but water runs behind them to cool them down. Cooled Photovoltaics are more efficient than hot ones. The cooling water is heated up this way and is then pumped to a massive pool-sized underground thermal storage facility. Although sounding like a smart win-win combination of solar energy technologies our RES Tour Guide was not glowing in her praise for it. RES didn't seem impressed that it all worked as well as expected. Nice experiment though.

Our Tour Guide for the day (above). Here she is standing in front of the Underground Thermal Storage facility (unseen to right of photo).

Miscanthus Biomass field (above). This is the "Elephant Grass" that you may have heard of. In the tropics it can grow to twice the height of a man and is not unlike Bamboo when fully grown. This plot sits between RES's Wind Turbine and the M25 Motorway (behind). It is a joint project with DEFRA - probably because this may be treated as an invasive species. It is not expected that Miscanthus may grow as well in Europe as the Tropics and this patch of land was not optimum. Unfortunately, for undefined reasons, the RES Biomass Boiler can't burn Miscanthus so they are buying in the Wood Pellets for it. The Miscanthus crop is sold to someone who can burn it. This obviously was not the intent but it is clear that we are all on a sharp learning curve.