Energy

The University is committed to saving energy both by encouraging and supporting behavioural change and by carrying out physical modifications to University buildings and their systems.

Reducing and saving energy is also part of our Environmental Sustainability Vision, Policy and Strategy and Action Plan with detailed Key Performance Indicators.

Refurbishment and construction

Where we are working to improve buildings around our Estate and we do so with energy efficiency and sustainable construction practices in mind.  We have a sustainable construction policy - Sustainable Construction and Renovation Policy - Durham University that ensures we deliver low emissions buildings, built to high standards.

Annual energy demand

Each year Durham University’s buildings use a significant amount of energy, this is detailed below for the last 3 years.

ind. We have a sustainable construction policy - Sustainable Construction and Renovation Policy - Durham University that ensures we deliver low emissions buildings, built to high standards.

Low carbon energy

We have extensive installations of renewable energy across the University estate, including over 800 kW of Solar PV across over 20 sites. We monitor electricity generation from solar PV, combined heat and power units and heat generation from our heat pumps, analysing data through our energy management software, Systemslink. We can track data half hourly to understand how systems are performing each day.

Installation at the Sports Wellbeing Park (Maiden Castle)

We also monitor solar PV through dedicator portals connected to inverters on PV systems. The image below is an extract from the PV installation at James Barber House, our lowest emissions building.

We also monitor the performance of low carbon heating systems, a key tool in our mission to reduce scope 1 emissions.

The heat pumps in the image below are coupled with heat meters than allow us to measure and optimise performance throughout the year.

Annual energy demand

Each year Durham University’s buildings use a significant amount of energy, this is detailed below for the last 3 years.

The renewable energy we generate on our sites helps support our energy demand and reduce emissions.

The table below sets our Low carbon Energy Use in 2022 and 2023

Carbon Management Plan

We publish our Carbon Management Plan that outlines are intentions to achieve these targets and are detailed in our Plan. This includes emissions reduction ambition and plans to reduce energy demand.