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Boris Johnson opens South Bank University’s energy-research centre
Published: August 2010
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has opened the Centre for Efficient & Renewable Energy in Buildings. CEREB forms part of a major redevelopment of London South Bank University and has been undertaken in partnership with City and Kingston Universities. CEREB and the new K2 building will host many forms of renewable or energy-efficient technologies. All of them will provide services to the centre and the 8500 m2 building below it. Data from the monitoring systems will be available via web interfaces, enabling it to be used for collaborative research worldwide. A key feature of the centre is the plug-and-play area, which is equipped to easily switch between boiler facilities by unplugging one and plugging in another. It will enable manufacturers with new products to trial their technology in a working environment. Among technologies in CEREB is solar fibre optics to carry light from rooftop collectors that track the Sun to fittings in rooms in the building. These fittings also incorporate low-energy fluorescent lamps and controls to provide a smooth transition from natural to artificial light. Heating will be provided by a ground-source heat pump drawing heat from the ground via 173 pipes each about 23 m deep in the foundations of the building. Supporting the heat pump is a trigeneration CHP system, with heat for an absorption chiller provided by a miniCHP unit, fuel cell or solar thermal. Phase-change materials are being used to regulate temperatures in the lightweight building to moderate temperature swings. A photo-voltaic roof light enables light to enter the lobby are and generate electricity. 
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