Measurement centre will save 2% of UK’s annual carbon footprint

The Centre for Carbon Measurement will deliver eight megatonnes of carbon emissions reductions and more than half a billion pounds in economic benefit over the next decade, according to an independent report.


Recently commissioned by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), where the Centre launched in March 2012, the report evaluates the impact of projects under the Centre’s remit.

It evaluated the Centre’s portfolio of projects, including those that aim to improve the accuracy of climate data from satellites, assess the potential to use biomass in end-of-life coal power stations, and create a temperature based control circuit to make energy efficient lighting even more efficient.

Examples of projects analysed by the report include optimising a new design of electrode for organic photovoltaic cells – cells that turn sunlight into energy.

According to the NPL, the work underpinned the design of flexible electrodes which are essential if the promise of organic photovoltaics – initially in areas such as wearable electronic devices – is to be realised. It added that this project is estimated to reduce carbon emissions by 257 kilotonnes over 8-10 years.

Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker, who recently visited the Centre, said: “The Centre for Carbon Measurement at NPL has supported businesses large and small with their innovations and in some cases has even designed its own emissions savings technologies”.

The NPL said the report confirmed that measurement plays an important and economically advantageous role in carbon reduction and concluded that measurement adds value across all the current areas of the Centre’s focus.

Head of the Centre for Carbon Measurement, Jane Burston, says “We are only one year in but already the Centre is showing its value. This analysis confirms we are on the right track and that carbon measurement brings a clear, quantifiable economic and environmental benefit.

“We can now assuredly forge ahead with a diverse range of projects that use our measurement expertise to provide vital support to climate science, low carbon technologies and carbon reduction initiatives.”

Read more on the Centre for Carbon Measurement here

Leigh Stringer

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