colwick park outdoor adventure centre

The Challenge

Colwick Park Outdoor Adventure Centre is a new training centre set within Colwick Park.
The centre was built from new by Nottingham City Council alongside the River Trent and within the boundaries of a country park. It was important the building’s energy and water supplies were generated from self sufficient sources due to the remote location of the centre and for environmental reasons. The park has a rich diversity of wildlife, from butterflies and dragonflies, to the large number of birds that visit the park, especially at migration time. This includes nationally important numbers of wildfowl that are present in the wintertime. Due to the buildings need for complete reliance on self generated energy supplies, it was vital that the building is energy efficient and has energy conservation measures in place. High levels of insulation minimise heating requirements, with windows orientated to provide passive solar energy. Low energy light bulbs are used and sensors in the toilets prevent lights being left on unnecessarily.

The Solution

Environmental education is a key element of the outdoor centre. The relationship between energy being generated and energy used is very important. This was important in the decision in finding the correct suppliers.  The centre chose a Proven 11 wind turbine to generate all mains electrical power on site from renewable resources.  The Proven 11 wind turbine is situated about 25 metres away from the centre enclosed within a 2 metre high security fence and photovoltaic (PV) panels are on the roof. Together they generate all the electricity for the centre. The design incorporates a battery store to cope with days when generation is low, electricity then passes through an inverter to convert shared electricity to mains voltage. The energy used is clearly shown by a series of gauges showing; photovoltaic cells output, wind turbine output, building consumption and battery voltage. These demonstrate for example, how much power is used each time the kettle boils or lights are turned on.