Setback for 'carbon neutral' homes » Environment » 24dash.com

The Chanceller Gordon Brown's pre-Budget speech recently placed great emphasis on his desire to see 'carbon neutral' homes built across the UK.

However, it appears the country's first example in Hackbridge is not working.

Peabody Trust's BedZED (Beddington Zero Energy Development) aims to become the first 'fully sustainable' place to live in the UK, but the scheme is now beset with problems and the idea could be scuppered altogether.

The idea won awards and acclaim when first introduced in 2002 with its combination of wall and roof insulation, triple glazing, energy efficient appliances and wind-driven ventilation.

Four years on, however, it appears the project is in meltdown.

The heating system has broken down on numerous occasions and its replacement will set the project back another £300,000. That's on top of its original overspend which exceeded £3.35 million in 2002. A combined heat and power plant has failed, meaning residents can only obtain their energy supplies from the national grid.

Indeed, the setbacks experienced in electricity supply has meant BedZED has not actually been 'zero carbon' for over a year. This fact has been acknowleged by a spokesman for Bioregional, which operates the eco-village:

"The power plant uses wood from local tree prunings which would have otherwise gone to waste.

"However, there have been problems with this prototype plant as sticky tar from the wood built up in the pipes preventing it from running effectively.

"The plant has not been running for over a year and so the site has been drawing electricity from the National Grid, although 11 per cent of the site's electricity has been continuously provided by solar panels."

Furthermore it has come to light that the 'natural filter sewerage' method utilising reed beds is also currently out-of-action due to prohibitive costs.

Bioregional have confirmed this saying: "BedZED was using an on-site water treatment plant to clean its waste water for toilet flushing but it produced more water than the site could use for this purpose and was closed due to higher than anticipated operational costs."

Claire Bennie, Development Manager for Peabody Trust admits failures have arisen: "Breakdowns have occured more frequently than we would have liked. People have tried for months - even years to get it to work. Power is now drawn from the national grid and backed up by gas boilers."

However, some point to the scheme's successes - and insist the project has many positive points.

The Executive Director of the environmental consultancy BioRegional Development Group, Sue Riddlestone claims she is not surprised by the difficulties:

"It's the kind of thing that we expect with new technology."

"Overall Bedzed has been a fantastic success. It was ahead of its time. But there are things to be learned."

Ms Riddlestone is a BedZED resident and claims 56% fewer carbon emissions are produced there - compared with an average UK household. She maintains that other areas – such as car pooling, and solar panels – have worked well.

It is beating its 33 per cent mains water reduction target and has a Green Transport Plan.

Martin Shaw, 41, who lives in the eco-village, said: "The development is still in its early stages and is the only one of its kind, so there are bound to be problems to begin with.

"I think Gordon Brown's plan is a good one, but is it feasible?"

The De Weerd family who rent a house in BedZED think it is making encouraging strides towards being as eco-friendly as their native Holland.

Gea De Weerd, 35, said: "The heat and water plant isn't working at the moment, but as long as they're going to work on it and fix it, I'm actually quite happy.

"This sort of development is fairly new to the UK, but in Holland it's much more common.

"For example here people think nothing of throwing away batteries,but that just wouldn't be done at home.

"There's still a long way to go yet, but I hope the heating and water problems get sorted out and it doesn't put people off building more of these developments."

The Bioregional spokesman stressed that despite teething problems, a lot of good is being done at BedZED.

She said: "We're not giving up on making BedZED 100 percent zero carbon again.

"The BedZED team are speaking with another renewable power company about installing a new system, so we are positive we'll get there soon.

"BedZED and its community will evolve over time and this is not the end of the story."

Samantha Heath, director of the London Sustainable Exchange, believes the capital may have to follow on from BedZED's lead to help compliance with the international Kyoto agreement.

"There are issues that need to be addressed, as with anything, but planners have got to be aware that unless carbon issues are addressed we [will be] in a dreadful situation."