I was interested to read in Edward Jolly’s letter (BSj 11/05) that the Draft Part L2A claim that power station CO2 emissions total 0.42 kg/CO2/kWh of delivered electricity was confirmed, by Ted King of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, as being provided by the DTI. As Edward Jolly says, this figure has a huge effect on CO2 emission calculations. It is arguably wrong, and using it for Part L calculations could be misleading.

From the 2004 Digest of UK Energy Statistics, it is estimated that fossil-fuelled power station emissions totalled 186 million tonnes of CO2 for total delivered electricity, including nuclear, of 340 TWh – which equates to 0.55 kg CO2/kWh. This is considerably more than the DTI’s estimate for future average power station emissions, which must be very uncertain with the changing power station fuel mix.

It is surely not right to assess the benefit of introducing new carbon-saving technologies versus power station emissions based on a conjectural assessment of future power station emissions. Best to stick with what we know.

Source

Building Sustainable Design

Postscript

John Amos CEng, MCIBSE, MIEE, MEI