energy projects in mk
Milton Keynes has a deserved reputation as having led the way in low energy housing and other projects designed to raise energy efficiency for almost 40 years. This page looks at some of the main projects, and links through to more detailed information about some of the most important work in the new city. The projects described on this page are in broadly chronological order, so you see how ideas developed over the years.
Thinking differently about energy for over 40 years
Ever since its inception in 1967, Milton Keynes has been a city that thinks differently, embraces evolution and champions change. Back in the 1960s, no-one had heard about climate change, and we seemed to be entering into a world of cheap reliable energy. But even then, people were asking questions about how the new city should be powered, and how should citizens move around the town.
Could the city be all-electric, using the output from the then newly-built nuclear power stations? Or should everyone have their own gas central heating system - an idea which was still quite novel in the 1960s? Should there be a monorail, with the city strung out in a long narrow line allowing everyone to walk to a station? Should it be a square city, with Los Angeles-style dual carriageways and traffic lights at every intersection, so that everyone could drive to work? If a tramway was built, would people want to use it? As the planners sat down with their blank sheets of paper to design the city that we know today, a nasty shock came on the horizon - the price of oil quadrupled in a few months, and suddenly the idea of an energy efficient city came to the fore.
The master plan sets the path to an energy efficient city
By the time the master plan was launched in 1972, Milton Keynes was going to be among Europe's most efficient cities. Homes were to be built with standards of insulation that would be equal to those in Sweden, so fuel bills would be lower than anywhere else in Britain. Even so, the planners thought that the best way to move people round the city was by car, designing grid roads that prevented inefficient traffic jams, and supplemented by a Dutch-style network of separated cycle tracks - the area's famous Redways.
Find out more about some of the early ideas for Milton Keynes
Experimental Homes, designed to test energy efficient solutions
In the 1970s, architects were attracted to Milton Keynes as a city where it was possible to test innovative ideas for low energy and sustainable homes. Early experiments focused on gaining free energy from the sun - including homes designed to actively capture the sun's warmth to heat water and the rooms inside. These homes also included much higher levels of insulation than were normal in Britain at the time.
Find out more about some of the early homes:
- The Bradville Solar House: Milton Keynes' first active solar house (1972)
- Solar Court (Linford Project): Nine highly insulated homes with three types of heating (1979)
- The Rainbow Housing Cooperative Conservatory: retrofitting an active solar element to a Victorian home in New Bradwell (1980)
- Summerhayes: Demonstrating low energy homes could be sold to the private sector (1980)
Pennyland: An entire grid square designed to showcase a low energy layout
The Pennyland project demonstrated large-scale planning for passive solar architecture, and showed that this need not result in straight rows of terraced houses. The scheme was built around a crescent, with small cul-de-sacs branching off it. This was the first time innovative layouts had been applied to an entire estate.
Right: Aerial view looking South
Below: Detail of plan of NW corner, showing how most houses are oriented E-W to provide South-facing façades.
Home World Exhibition
Open to the public during 1981, Home World was the first Housing Exhibition in the city showcasing innovation in energy efficient homes. Twenty developers built 36 houses for the Home World Exhibition 1981; the purpose of which was to demonstrate the latest ideas in housing design and technology. Although energy efficiency was not directly part of the project brief, most developers did address the issue. Three homes in particular were seen as being groundbreaking:
- The Ideal Home
- The Autarkic House, and
- Futurehome 2000
More homes test insulation and solar energy
Thirty six flats and 'starter' houses were built by Giffard Park Housing Cooperative in 1984. The challenge was to achieve a 60% reduction in space heating fuel requirements for no more than an additional £500 in construction costs.
In 1985, four timber-framed superinsulated houses were built at Two Mile Ash. These had extremely low space heating fuel requirements, achieved not by solar methods or special heating appliances but by heavily insulating the fabric and paying great attention to air tightness and introducing controlled ventilation, based on Finnish designs and construction methods.
Find out more about Gifford Park and Two Mile Ash
Energy World and the Energy Park
The Energy Park was a 300 acre site comprising housing, employment, parkland and a range of community facilities spanning Shenley Lodge and Knowlhill. Designated in 1985, the Energy Park was planned as an international demonstration project of energy efficiency. All buildings constructed in the Energy Park were required to demonstrate high levels of energy efficiency. To ensure this, in housing areas all designs had to meet an energy performance standard using the Milton Keynes Energy Cost Index (MKECI) developed by the Open University in partnership with the Milton Keynes Development Corporation. This later served as the basis for the Government's Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP).
The Energy Park was launched in 1985 by a show village called Energy World, containing 50 dwellings. A wide range of developers were involved, including local and volume house builders, foreign companies and organisations closely associated with energy. The homes varied in size from large detached houses down to small starter homes and one-bedroom flats.
Find out more about Energy World and the Energy Park
The National Energy Foundation and National Energy Centre
The National Energy Foundation (NEF) is a registered charity set up in 1990 to help citizens address rising concerns about global warming. Its initial work was to develop some of the ideas created in Milton Keynes and to take them forward onto a national stage. The Foundation works through practical advice and help in installing energy saving measures and implementing appropriate renewable energy sources.
In 1999, the National Energy Foundation moved into a purpose-built low energy office complex in Knowlhill. There are two buildings on the site: Phase I is a high thermal mass highly insulated building heated by conventional means; Phase II is a low thermal mass building heated by a ground source heat pump. The Centre serves as a base for a number of companies active in encouraging moves towards a lower carbon future.
Find out more about the National Energy Foundation and National Energy Centre
Future World shows that innovations are still possible
Kents Hill was the home of the Future World Exhibition sponsored by the National House Building Council (NHBC) in 1994, where architects, builders and producers of building products were invited to provide a glimpse of the way homes might operate in the 21st Century.
As with the Home World Exhibition 13 years earlier, the common themes of the exhibition were energy efficiency and conservation of the environment. The properties ranged from shared ownership, housing association properties to virtual mansions.
Educating and Training Citizens about Energy & Climate Change
Milton Keynes' Universities have also been at the forefront of educating the UK population about the need for more sustainable energy and the adverse effects of Global Climate Change.
The OU leads the way in sustainable energy
The Open University was founded by the Labour Government in the 1960s under the stewardship of Minister of State for Education, Jennie Lee. In September 1969 the OU relocated to its permanent home in Walton Hall, Milton Keynes and its first 25,000 students were admitted in 1971. Growing out of work in its systems department, the OU was among the leaders in sponsoring research into energy use in homes, and also undertook early energy advice projects in the 1980s, in partnership with the Nationwide Building Society among others. The Energy and Environment Research Unit (EERU) was set up in 1986 to undertake and co-ordinate research on sustainable energy technologies and to support the development of environmentally sound approaches to the generation and use of energy.
EERU's current aims are:
- to advance and disseminate knowledge of energy systems and their interactions with the biosphere, with particular emphasis on those systems which enable the energy needs of society to be met sustainably;
- to promote interdisciplinary research in fields related to energy and the environment.
Cranfield Energy Technology Centre
Situated just outside the borough, the Energy Technology Centre at Cranfield University embraces:
- power generation technology
- offshore technology and subsea engineering
- risk management and reliability engineering
Cranfield's research ranges from the production and clean utilisation of fossil fuels to turbine technology and the use of waste as fuel. Cranfield's breadth and reach in the energy sector means that they are frequently invited by the Government to lead industrial consortia with a wide range of partners, such as a UK/US research collaboration in advanced materials for power generation.
Cranfield operate unique industrial-scale facilities for the development of efficient technologies with low CO2 emissions.
And into the present...
This historical summary of energy and low carbon projects in Milton Keynes is just the beginning. There are many more projects taking place right now, and some are described on the current projects page.
Please note...
Many of the projects described here were designed to improve the energy performance of private homes. If you wish to view any of the properties described please remember that they remain private, and avoid taking photographs or otherwise intruding on residents' privacy.
