PRevious Work
BRINK! Community Garden Centre
BRINK! is a platform designed to foster dialogue and action on the critical issues surrounding climate change.
In alignment with its objectives, a proposal was put forward to develop a currently underutilized space at the Belfast Stories site into a vibrant community garden and event park.
This project aims to enhance the availability of green spaces within the local vicinity, while also showcasing the effective integration of renewable technologies in an urban setting.
This space is located in the heart of Belfast City Centre, and will house the Brink project as a temporary 18 month installation before further development commences for Belfast Stories commences at a later date.
Although renewable generation can be challenging in a dense urban environment like the project location, the project developers were especially keen to explore renewable energy solutions in line with achieving their climate goals. To help explore what options would be available at this location, comprehensive energy modelling was completed with an assessment of the results provided in a report.
The main goal was to reduce emissions as much as possible whilst still achieving net economic improvements across the considered scenarios. The impacts from adding a grid connection, both with and without export capabilities, were also explored to help inform future projects where this may be an option.
The main technologies considered were:
- Solar Photovoltaic energy generation
- Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) battery energy storage
- Electric Vehicle to Load energy storage and power supply
- HVO Biodiesel replacement for conventional generator use
- Grid connection, with and without export potential
A site assessment was completed with site energy demand being estimated from the equipment currently planned for installation on site. A long term case study will also be conducted at the site to gather data and measure how accurate modelling was when compared to real world results. A second report will be produced and published to document these results as soon as sufficient data is available.
Modelling results for the project were very promising, showing that utilisation of a hybrid renewable energy system could result in up to 99% reductions in CO2 emissions, whilst achieving project lifetime savings of over 50%. All hybrid energy systems considered resulted in benefits in almost every metric when compared to the baseline scenarios of conventional generator or grid usage.
Read more and access the full report by clicking the button below.
