A prestigious Queen's Award for sustainable development is to be presented in Birmingham next week.

The city was chosen to host the event by the Utilicom Group who won the Sustainability Award for Continuous Achievement due to its successful Combined Heat and Power (CHP) projects, it's newest (the Birmingham District Energy Scheme) was the leading focus of the Group’s application for the award.

Cllr Paul Tilsley, Deputy Leader at Birmingham City Council has been involved from the start and will be speaking at the event, he commented: "Even in it's infancy this initiative has been noted as the flagship scheme to deliver the City Council’s 60% carbon reduction by 2026. I have been privileged to be involved from the start and watching the scheme develop and seeing the impact it is already having on our environment has been very exciting."

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The highly acclaimed Queen’s Award is presented to business units who are able to demonstrate substantial improvement in business performance and commercial success, to levels that are outstanding for the size of the applicant's operations.

Birmingham City Council has long held the vision of developing large-scale sustainable district energy schemes across the city and in this last year those aims have become a reality through the CHP scheme.

The project distributes 'locally' produced energy to a number of consumers over a private energy network.

The first Broad Street phase provides hot water for heating, electricity and cold water for air conditioning to many of Birmingham’s most prominent buildings - including the International Convention Centre (ICC), the National Indoor Arena (NIA), the Council House, the recently re-opened Town Hall, Rep Theatre, Paradise Circus and the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

Unlike conventional forms of power generation, CHP, puts the heat that is the by-product of the generation to good use rather than wasting it to the atmosphere. This results in a system with 80% efficiency; a staggering 50% increase over traditional forms of energy production.

In the first year of operation, this scheme has already generated a saving of 2800 tons of carbon.

Urban Design in Birmingham City Council are currently identifying other areas across the City centre where this initiative can grow.

The presentation will be held at the ICC on Monday 24 November with the Lord Lieutenant, Deputy Lord Mayor and Mayoress and dignitaries from the partnership.

(JM)