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Commission statement on energy conservation and management at Games-time

July 10, 2012   |   Posted by Jemma Percy

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The Commission is now confident that LOCOG is on track to meet its commitment to achieving 20% carbon reduction related to Games-time energy use. LOCOG’s original target was that 20% of Games-time electricity would come from new local renewable sources. However, in April 2011 LOCOG confirmed a new approach to this target through the use of “energy conservation measures to achieve carbon savings equivalent to its original renewable energy target for the Olympic Park at Games-time”, once it became clear that it would be impossible to meet the target using renewable energy[1]. In the Commission’s review into the preparations to stage a sustainable Games (In sight of the finishing line) in 2012, we recommended that “LOCOG produce an energy management and conservation plan demonstrating how it will reduce carbon emissions by at least the amount that would have been avoided through the renewable energy target, in sufficient time for its recommendations to be implemented”. This followed up on a previous recommendation in our 2010 Annual Review, published in April 2011, “That LOCOG calculates the carbon that would have been saved through the renewable energy target and demonstrates how this carbon will be saved through reducing Games time energy use”. The Commission’s most recent pre-Games report (Breaking the tape) was critical of the …

Wind turbine

Olympic wind turbine cancelled

June 8, 2010   |   Posted by Shaun McCarthy

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Gone when the morning comes… Like a bat out of hell it was gone when the morning comes. On 3 June 2010, the ODA announced the cancellation of their proposed wind turbine for the Olympic Park. With it came a little media storm with headlines such as “what hope now for the Green Games?” and “Olympic chiefs scrap wind power plan”. The first question I was asked by one journalist was “What other environmental targets are the ODA going to ditch?” Words like “scrap”, “ditch” and “abandon” appeared in most headlines. The fact is, the ODA are ditching nothing and we expect them to honour the commitment they made to deliver 50% carbon reduction and 20% energy from renewable sources. In the face of increasing challenges with wind power, they have now chosen to deliver their 20% renewable energy commitment using biomass Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system and other renewables, not a wind turbine. Biomass is the ugly duckling to the wind turbine’s beautiful swan. Whether you like them or not, wind turbines take a great picture against a background of a crisp blue sky, a spectacular sunset, or even a thunderstorm. They look good in PowerPoint presentations, on …