Project Zero is the Vale of Glamorgan Council’s response to the climate and nature emergencies.
Introduction
Project Zero is the Vale of Glamorgan Council’s response to the climate and nature emergencies. It brings together the wide range of work and opportunities available to tackle the climate emergency, reduce the Council’s carbon emissions to net zero by 2030 and encourage others to make positive changes.
Four of our eighteen challenges seek to demonstrate strong leadership, and it was with these in mind that our application for an ACPW3 collaboration grant was made. Securing £250k grant enabled us to:
Engage with the community
Engage with the community and listen to their priorities for tackling climate change and protecting our natural resources, supporting them to make a difference and to shape our collective ambitions.
How our work at Community Centre aligns
The grant enabled us to work with community centres in Llantwit Major, Rhoose and Barry. These centres reach a variety of different community groups who will all now benefit from cheaper operating costs.
Raise awareness and understanding
Raise awareness and understanding by promoting consistent and clear messages to our staff, our communities and partners about the difference we can make and are making by changing our behaviour and transforming our services.
How our work at Community Centre aligns
Alongside investing in new technology to reduce energy consumption, behaviour change training was delivered on controlling the new LED lighting, on using smart thermostats and on how to make best use of solar generated electricity with daytime hires and battery use for evening hires.
Operational savings and income from excess PV can be sold to the grid to secure economic viability for the community groups.
Develop our evidence base and insight
Develop our evidence base and insight to understand more fully the potential impact and ‘costs’ of activities.
How our work at Community Centre aligns
The grant has enabled us to pilot different ways of working and collaborating with community groups. The monitoring systems (smart thermostat and PV monitoring) will enable committees to learn how best to manage their centres.
Embrace our role as community leaders
Embrace our role as community leaders to work with and influence and enable others to bring about the changes necessary to tackle climate change.
How our work at Community Centre aligns
The Decarbonisation and Energy team can share experience of managing the wider estate with these devolved building assets. Dialogue with all community centre committees has increased because of this grant.
Where did we work?
Decarbonisation audits of all community centres were carried out in spring 2023, and the scale of opportunity varied hugely. Selecting the sites meant balancing where the investment could best match the halls bookings, programming to not take centres offline for too long, and identifying committees willing to participate in the pilot.
The three sites selected were:
Rhoose Community Centre, Stewart Road with two halls and a youth group hub, this centre has several bookings a day and across the week and weekend.
St Francis Millenium Centre, Barry hosts a playgroup Monday to Friday during the day and has evening classes and weekend bookings for most of the year.
CF61, Llantwit Major is a community space operated by Glamorgan Voluntary Service (GVS). With a variety of halls and office spaces available for hire, they also host the weekly Food Pantry project and chatty cafes; the centre is a busy community hub for the town.
What did we do?
Rhoose Community Centre
Action
Insulation of hot water pipes, both the heating and domestic pipework.
Action
Two point of use water heaters fitted, to replace an old inefficient gas fired water heater.
Action
Smart (Nest) thermostats installed and operational on the two heating systems.
Impact
Heating times and temperatures can be monitored by the committee and better match the booking times and activities of each space.
In comparing bills from April – June 2023 and for the same period in 2024, gas consumption was down over 20%.
Action
PV array was installed with a 28 panel (12kWp) PV array was installed on the roof with a 11kW 3Phase hybrid invertor with 10kWh battery. An export agreement has been made with NGED and enables the community centre to be paid for any excess generation exported to the grid. An example of the GivEnergy dashboard is shown left.
Impact
In comparing bills from April to June 2023 and for the same period in 2024, we can see the site’s consumption from the grid has dropped by over 80%.
Action
New LED lighting throughout the building has hugely improved the feel of each space. With daylight linking and presence detection controls better set to match the variety of users, for example drama, cinema groups (using projectors), yoga requiring diming lights and much more.
St Francis Millennium Centre
Action
New LED lighting throughout the building resolved several maintenance issues the committee were experiencing. Old fittings at high level were inefficient, providing poor lighting and noisy. Furthermore, replacing lights for the stage area was costly and awkward to install.
Impact
LED fittings require less maintenance, crisper lighting and no noise. All spaces benefit from daylight linking and presence detection controls better set to match the variety of users, from crafting quilters, yoga and meditation and playgroup.
Action
All heating pipework was insulated within the building, and a smart (Nest) thermostat installed to better control the heating to match building usage.
Impact
With a high thermal mass, the building’s heating regime can become much more efficient.
Action
PV array and battery installation on the flat roof. With a modern entrance added to the St Francis Hall in 2000, this flat roof was ideal to locate a 14 panel (6kWp) PV array out of sight, paired with a 5kW hybrid invertor with 9.5kWh battery. Again, an export arrangement is in place with NGED for any excess to be exported and payment to the Committee being arranged.
Impact
The system provides free electricity for the playgroup and battery assists with evening hire.
CF61, Llantwit Major
Action
New low surface temperature radiators and insulated heating pipework were installed. These replaced the single pipe heating system serving old cast iron radiators that were past their end of useful life. Previously, overheating in some areas resulted in the heating circuit having to remain on to serve one area, whilst another area had to open windows to cool down with heat escaping and being wasted.
Impact
The system provides more flexibility for heating each room to different temperatures in response to user needs.
Action
A new smart (Nest) thermostat has also been provided to enable remote monitoring of the building’s heating pattern as well.
Impact
In comparing gas bills from April – June 2023 and for the same period in 2024, a saving of over 40% has been realised.
Action
New LED lighting complete with daylight linking and presence detection was installed in areas not already refurbished and benefitting from LED lighting.
Impact
This has significantly reduced the building’s electricity demand for lighting, paired with a new PV system that is already providing financial benefits.
Action
A new 24 panel (10kWp) PV array, with 8kW invertor with 10kWh battery has been put in place.
Impact
On some days the building can now operate as an “island” without requiring any power from the grid. For example, in March, when the array had been installed and contractors were still onsite. In April, once the battery was full and excess being generated by the PV array, the building was exporting to the grid. See left output from Solar Edge monitoring package. On an overcast day when generation is still low, the battery depleted, the building demand (at 10am) can still be met without purchasing electricity from the grid – or even exporting.
Impact
In comparing bills from April – June 2023 and for the same period in 2024, a saving of more than 70% on grid demand has been realised.
Impact
For the first operational quarter April – June 2024 system generated more than 3.2MWh (mega-watt hours), saving over 700kg of carbon emissions and the equivalent of more than 44 trees being planted. These considerable benefits, from just the first quarter of operation, will continue to grow and improve as GVS gain confidence in monitoring the system and with smart export guarantee income being agreed.