30 November 2009
The green valleys of Wales have been an inspiration for staff and students working together for a greener University.
They took time out to learn about green energy when they visited the Dinorwig, power station at Electric Mountain, First Hydro's Visitor Centre in Llanberis, Wales.
The visit was organised by the University's £300,000 Energy Conservation in Computing Intensive Learning Environments (ECCILES)Project, to raise awareness among staff and students about sustainability problems relating to energy use on campus.
The ECCILES project is one of three nationally prominent Green IT projects, funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), aiming to find innovative ways to reduce carbon and energy use in the university sector. The project draws on the University of Bolton's expertise in innovation approaches, to generate a holistic set of solutions to reducing energy usage.
Roger Kirkman, Systems Administrator and lecturer at the University, who organised the trip, said: 'For environmental and economic reasons, it's essential that the University continues to develop its policies on sustainability. As energy usage is central to this there were two main aims for the visit – to give people an understanding of the processes involved in the generation of green energy, and to give them some insight into the impact of intensive environments and high demands on energy supplies.'
Roger is based in the School of Games Computing and Creative Technologies offices, which have a high concentration of specialist computer workstations and development technologies. As he acknowledges, the school is a good example of the intensive computing environments found in higher education, in terms of energy usage. With high-spec graphic cards and processors, these computers may use even more energy and generate excess heat, which means some form of air conditioning is required to ensure conditions are acceptable for working and learning. This requirement then creates further energy demands.
'It becomes a cycle that leads to increasing amounts of energy use,' said Roger. 'The challenge is to retain the levels of IT provision for the students and ensure good working conditions in classrooms and IT suites, while significantly reducing the levels of energy consumption.'
The ECCILES Project has 18 months to find solutions to these issues. The aim is to deliver a 25% reduction in energy consumption resulting from computer use on campus. It also aims to improved control over heat issues in classrooms and achieve an understanding of energy reduction strategies that can be used across the University sector.
Some changes have already been made, resulting in substantial reductions in energy use. For example, staffroom and classrooms in the School of Games Computing and Creative Technologies have been upgraded to the latest high efficiency lighting, triggered by movement and light level sensors. In the next few weeks all computers will automatically hibernate when not in use and switch off at night.
The project strands cover both technology and human behaviour and a conference around the project's green innovation approach is to be held at the University in December.