Welsh Assembly Governemnt - The Senedd Building biomass boiler
Example of:
How good construction and refurbishment can help improve sustainability
Key points:
- the National Assembly for Wales building has a biomass boiler which emits significantly less carbon dioxide than burning conventional fuel.
The Senedd building on Cardiff Bay houses the National Assembly for Wales, and was completed in 2006. One of the requirements in the design brief was that energy consumption and use in and carbon emissions from the building should be minimised.
One of the ways in which this is achieved is through use of a biomass boiler to provide high-grade heat (e.g. hot water for hand-washing in the toilets and for heating convectors). The boiler uses wood pellets made from off-cuts produced at a local furniture makers, and the residual ash left after combustion is almost pure potash, which is sold on to local garden centres for fertiliser. The process emits significantly less carbon dioxide than burning conventional fuel.