Environmental Impact

Contents

          1.       Introduction

          2.       Demand side

          3.       Supply side

          4.       Conclusions

          5.       References

Regarding environmental impact, this project mainly focuses on carbon dioxide emissions resulting from electricity generation to supply the required energy for construction villages. This has the reason that CO₂ is a greenhouse gas that is aimed to be reduced drastically with the intention to reduce the risk of global warming. Governments within the United Kingdom have agreed to a programme which moves towards a 20% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2010. [1] Construction companies, therefore, can contribute to this reduction by improving the energy efficiency of their construction villages.

Additional atmospheric emissions resulting from electricity generation are the greenhouse gas NOX and sulphur dioxide (SO₂), which contributes to acid rain. However, excessive energy consumption does not only lead in excessive atmospheric emissions but also in reduction of natural resources. 

Other environmental impacts of construction villages are:

·         Environmental effects of extraction and processing of materials, which are used in the building fabric of prefabricated buildings

·         Waste generated during the manufacturing process of these accommodation units

·         Air impacts caused by the transport of construction site accommodations to and from the construction site

·         Excessive use of scarce water resources

·         Possible generation of effluents that can lead to water pollution

·         Deterioration of visual appearance

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The figure on the right demonstrates to which extent the environmental impact in form of carbon emissions can be decreased by using energy reducing measures identified in this project’s demand side study of construction villages. The figure states the annual carbon emissions of Laing O’Rourke’s Xscape site resulting from the electricity demand of various areas of the construction village before and after implementing the identified measures.

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The CO₂  emissions from the supply side can be summarised as follows:

• Diesel generator improvement: the CO₂ emissions produced from burning of fuel using a diesel generator can be reduced from 0.93kg/kWh down to 0.71kg/kWh by improving the generator efficiency.

• Wind turbine:  using a 15 kW turbine in combination with battery storage at Laing O´Rouke´s Xscape site can result in avoided CO₂ emissions of 40 tonnes per year.

• The grid: the CO₂ generated per unit of electricity from the UK grid is 0.43 kg/kWh and therefore about 54% less than when using a diesel generator running at low efficiency.

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The shown figures demonstrate that using the methodology developed during this project will enhance radical improvements of construction villages regarding their environmental impact in form of carbon emissions. 

In some cases it happens that economics do not show an important advantage by using energy efficient measures or clean technologies compared to fossil fuel systems. However, the CO₂ emissions that can be avoided by their usage shows that construction villages can make a contribution to solve present and future problems.

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(1) McMullan R., Environmental Science in Building, Fifth Edition (2002), published by PALGRAVE

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