THE QUEEN AND THE ENVIRONMENT: GREEN INITIATIVES FOR THE ROYAL RESIDENCES
The use of LPG ‘green’ fuel in The Queen’s State Cars and The Duke of Edinburgh’s taxi have been noted in the media, but less well-known is the plan for an innovative hydro-electric scheme for Balmoral Castle which was unveiled in November 2004. This month’s Focus looks at measures which have been taken to ensure that the Royal residences are run in an environmentally responsible manner, through re-cycling, energy saving and conservation.
‘Clean’ Power for the Royal Residences
The Royal Household is constantly looking at new ways of saving and supplying energy so as to remain as environmentally friendly as possible well into the future. At Balmoral Castle a hydro-electric scheme which helps residences run from environmentally friendly power sources. The small scale hydro-electricity generating plant developed on the Gelder Burn supplies 27 kW per hour to the National Grid. A similar scheme providing clean electricity for Windsor Castle, announced in November 2004, has been postponed.
A scheme providing clean electricity for Windsor Castle is already underway. Power is to be supplied by the River Thames through Romney Weir at Windsor. The project will be the first of its kind in the south of England and will generate environmentally friendly energy from the flow of water over an existing Thames weir.
It is intended that the electricity generated will be exported to Windsor Castle.
Project Manager Alastair Gill comments:
“This is an exciting environmentally friendly project and will provide enough clean energy to meet around a third of the electricity needs of the castle. It will also offset approximately 600 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year which would otherwise have been released in to the atmosphere from the burning of conventional fossil fuels.”
Another Royal residence looks set to become energy self-sufficient, as a stream has been harnessed on the Balmoral estate to produce hydro-electric power. This will be used for both the Royal residence itself and, potentially, a thousand homes in the area.
A water-driven turbine was installed at Balmoral in the 1920s to provide the estate with electric light. However, since the 1950s it has been used to power the estate sawmill. As the mill is now no longer in use, staff at the estate have installed a generator which allows the turbine to be connected to the National Grid.
The Balmoral turbine is in the Gelder Burn, which runs into the River Dee about a mile south-west of the castle. It flows from Lochnagar, the 3,800ft mountain which dominates the estate.
The powerful year-round flow of water should generate about 1MW of electricity and runs like a miniature version of the massive Scottish hydro plants that can produce 300MW of power. These initiatives have been welcomed by environmental campaigners.
The Buckingham Palace Bore Hole
Meanwhile, in other Royal residences, smaller, but no less significant efforts are being made to save energy and conserve the living environment.
The Royal Household has helped address the local environmental issue of rising water levels in London with the creation of a bore hole, dug in 2002 underneath the Broadwalk in the garden of Buckingham Palace. London is at risk of severe flooding unless water levels under the Capital are properly controlled.
Local environmentalists believe that new buildings can put the rising water levels to good use, for example in air conditioning systems.
This is exactly what is currently being done at Buckingham Palace with the bore hole being used to supply air conditioning to The Queen’s Gallery.
Cool water is pumped up from the bore hole, this water then cools a series of plates, similar to the elements on the back of a refrigerator, which in turn is used to cool the air in The Queen’s Gallery.
Once this water has been used for cooling, it is recycled by topping up the water levels in the lake in the Buckingham Palace gardens.
Power at Buckingham Palace
As well as being The Queen’s official London residence, Buckingham Palace is the venue for numerous receptions, audiences and banquets each year and houses approximately 600 full and part-time staff. It therefore needs to provide heat and power for a huge number of people and purposes.
Ron Harper, Deputy Property Manager at Buckingham Palace, is responsible for ensuring that energy is supplied efficiently and effectively. Property Section staff are committed to saving energy wherever possible:
“Every five years, issues relating to the efficient running of the household’s heat and power supplies are reviewed by the team here at Buckingham Palace, meaning that energy efficiency within the Royal Household is constantly under a process of scrutiny and improvement.”
A number of energy saving devices have been installed in recent years. In 1995 heat resonance imaging was used on the Palace to pinpoint the major areas which heat was being lost from so that heat and therefore energy loss could be reduced.
It was found that most heat was being lost through windows and, in particular, through skylights. As a result, double glazing has already been fitted to a number of skylights and is planned for the skylights above the Picture Gallery in the near future.
Monthly meetings are held with English Heritage to ensure that any changes which are made do not affect the integrity of the building as a heritage site.
A computerised Building Management System has been installed to control heating and power systems around the Palace, enabling these systems to be reviewed and adjusted so that they are running as efficiently as possible.
For example, if the outside temperature rises, even by a few degrees centigrade, the radiators inside the building can be cooled to maintain a constant room temperature and to ensure that rooms are never overheating or wasting energy.
Fans in the Palace kitchens, which once ran on full power all day, can now be used at half or two thirds of their capability, depending on the activity in the kitchens. Between meal preparations the fans will run on a minimum capacity, whilst during preparations for a State Banquet they run on full power.
In addition to this, two Combined Heat and Power units, or CHPs, are currently in use in Buckingham Palace. Ron Harper explains how these use energy more efficiently:
“These are engines which run on the same principle as a car engine to produce power, except whereas a car engine loses heat through its radiator, heat from the CHPs is instead collected and harnessed for use elsewhere. The CHPs currently heat the hot water for the entire Palace, and a new CHP planned for 2005 will be even more energy efficient.”
There is a vast amount of lighting within the Palace, from standard office lighting to chandeliers in the State Rooms. Combined, these have the potential to use a great deal of energy.
For this reason, Property Section staff have been phasing in more energy-efficient forms of lighting. Light Emitting Diode, or LED technology alongside high frequency lamps enable lighting within the Palace to run as efficiently as possible, using far less power than standard lightbulbs.
The Queen’s Gardens
Environmentally friendly initiatives are not limited to inside spaces. Some of the ‘greenest’ places in the Queen’s residences are, not surprisingly, The Queen’s gardens.
Mark Lane, Gardens Manager at Buckingham Palace, describes a number of initiatives which ensure that the gardens at The Queen’s residences will look their best whilst encouraging wildlife and plant life to thrive without any detrimental effects on the environment:
“At Buckingham Palace, 99% of green waste is recycled on site. Green waste includes grass cuttings, twigs, branches and ‘arisings’ (soiled straw from the stables in the Royal Mews).
“Waste is also brought in from Kensington Palace, Marlborough House and St James’s Palace grounds. This is put through a shredder so that bacteria can operate more quickly on smaller pieces of material.
“The waste is regularly turned until it has rotted sufficiently to be used as mulch. We then use this when preparing new flower beds. The mulch protects plants from heat and cold, retains water, suppresses weed germination and prevents soil from being washed away in the rain.”
Larger pieces of wood are stacked in piles in the Palace grounds. These piles provide habitats for a variety of flora and fauna, including beetles, spiders and fungi.
Tree stumps are not removed, but are left to rot away naturally, providing a perfect environment for insects to lay their eggs and hatch their larvae in. Dead trees are also left alone, with one such tree at the bottom of the Rose Garden currently providing a habitat for a family of Woodpeckers.
“The use of pesticides is kept to a minimum, and the aim is that eventually they will be phased out completely,” says Mr Lane.
“Whereas weed killer was once used on the paths of the Buckingham Palace grounds, now a weed burning machine is used instead. This breaks up the cells of living plants so that they explode through heat, meaning that there is no need for chemicals which could potentially be harmful to wildlife.”
Sustainable plant life is encouraged, with a long grass policy currently in use over approximately 10% of the Buckingham Palace garden area.
Around 320 different types of wildflowers grow in these areas, such as Creeping Buttercup and Herb Robert, and are allowed to go through an entire yearly cycle of growth (including seed spreading), before the grasses are cut at the end of August.
This means that wildflowers are allowed to reproduce and sustain themselves without interference. In addition, an 800 metre stretch of ground around the edge of the lake is cut on a rotational basis every 4 years, again, allowing flora and fauna to prosper uninterrupted.
As well as sustaining existing flora and fauna, new wildlife and plant life is also encouraged. Over the last 10 years, many more seed bearing plants have been introduced into the garden; these encourage a wealth of bird life to come into the Palace grounds to feed during the winter months.
More native plants have also been brought in. Seed bearing plants include a wide variety of Cotoneaster and Rowans, and natives have included the Aspen and female Black Poplar. Mr. Lane adds:
“We also ensure that the machinery which is used for the upkeep of the gardens is environmentally sound. The weed burning machine runs off the same liquid petroleum gas supply which is used for The Duke of Edinburgh’s taxi. Biodegradable diesel, lubricants and oils are used in lawn mowers and other pieces of machinery.”
The Queen’s gardeners, along with the rest of the Royal Household staff, are committed to remaining as ‘green’ as possible.
Biodiversity at Balmoral and Sandringham
Such environmental initiatives are not limited to London. Policies are in place in Balmoral and Sandringham to ensure that the land is farmed sympathetically and that wildlife is encouraged to flourish.
All Balmoral woodlands are certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council which supports sutainable forestry worldwide, whilst farming practices there are registered with the Soil Association which promotes organic food and farming.
Balmoral staff ensure that the vast amount of organic waste which the estate generates is recycled, with 50 tonnes of it being turned into compost each year.
Sandringham, meanwhile, produces organic vegetables and fruit on its arable farmland and meadows. Its apples are turned into juice which uses only vitamin C as a preservative, avoiding all unnatural colourings and preservatives. Wildlife conservation and responsible farming is seen as an integral part of life on the estate.
With such a wealth of environmentally friendly initiatives already in place in Royal residences and more planned for the future, the Royal Household is setting an example which will continue to have a positive impact on the environment for many years to come. |
