NEWS | DIGEST TRACKING WASTE HEAT FROM SPACE British Earth observation startup Satellite Vu has ordered a second thermal-imaging satellite to map the heat being generated by the worlds buildings. The companys second satellite will enable it to double its capacity for collecting data about buildings heat wastage using a new infrared camera. The constellations operator, Surrey Satellite Technology, is due to launch its rst satellite in the rst quarter of 2023, on board SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket Satellite Vu is doubling its capacity for collecting data about buildings heat wastage IN BRIEF Entopia awarded EnerPHit Classic certification Cambridges Entopia Building has been awarded the Passive House Institutes EnerPHit Classic certification. The new headquarters of the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership is a conversion of a 1930s telephone exchange into offices. Its energy requirement is just 15% of the original buildings, and the retrofit project saved more than 62,000kg CO2e in construction materials. Only a handful of office buildings in the UK have been awarded the EnerPHit Classic certification, which is designed to recognise highly energy-efficient retrofitted buildings. Switched-on council set for carbonnegative microgrid ABB has delivered an electrical distribution and control system for a 300kW future microgrid eco-park being deployed by consultancy Tetra Tech for Oldham Council in Greater Manchester. The first phase of the eco-park is due to be completed by spring 2023, and the council wants it to become a carbon-negative microgrid that supplies excess electricity to the Grid. The eco-park will integrate solar photovoltaic panels, a 500kVA Grid connection, electric vehicle charging points, and electricity demand from an office building, as well as heating from an air source heat pump. Grid constraints holding up developments in West London Requests for electricity connections from data centres creating a logjam London mayor Sadiq Khan is set to meet the government in a bid to unlock the electricity Grid constraints that are threatening to hold back delivery of homes in the west of the capital. At the end of July, SSEN, which owns and operates the distribution network in that area, told prospective developers there was insufcient electrical capacity for new connections, and that they may have to wait until 2035. The constraints follow what a Greater London Authority (GLA) brieng note, seen by CIBSE Journal, describes as a rapid inux of requests for new electricity connections from data-centre operators seeking to co-locate with bre-optic cables passing through the west of London, along the M4 corridor, and across the Atlantic. The current constraints are most acute in the boroughs of Ealing and Hounslow, it says. SSEN operates a queuing system for new connections, which works on a rst come, rst served basis, in line with its licence conditions set out by the energy regulator, Ofgem. SSEN and the National Grid, which runs the electricity transmission network, are understood to be nding ways to maximise opportunities for new connections and resolve existing constraints. These include: improving queue management by reviewing customer connection needs and assessing whether existing capacity is available; better understanding of the phasing of already contracted parties electrical requirements; measures to incentivise a more even spread of electricity demand throughout the day; and investigating a review of regulations to potentially enable additional Grid capacity in constrained areas. A GLA spokesperson said a request for a meeting with the government, issued weeks ago, has now been accepted. David OLeary, director of policy at the Home Builders Federation, said the West London constraints offered a hint of the Grid-connection difculties likely to arise when there was greater uptake of electric vehicles and heat pumps. Greenpeace challenges gas field Greenpeace has lodged a legal challenge over the granting of consent to develop a large North Sea gas eld. The Offshore Petroleum Regulator, on behalf of Secretary of State for business and energy Kwasi Kwarteng, gave the go-ahead in June for Shell to develop the Jackdaw eld, which lies 150 miles east of Aberdeen. Greenpeace has lodged an appeal against the decision, on the grounds that the government failed in its legal duty to check the projects environmental impacts by not considering the damage caused by burning the gas that will be extracted. 10 September 2022 www.cibsejournal.com CIBSE Sept 22 pp10 News.indd 10 26/08/2022 15:09