PassivSystems & Modcell Partnership

Two Clean & Cool Mission companies have combined forces to unveil a blueprint for the eco schools of the future. PassivSystems is to work with Modcell on the creation of the ModCell Renewable Schools across the UK, targeting the Governments Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.

The schools will be built using ModCell’s renewable, carbon capturing materials that lower heating costs by up to 85 per cent, whilst any energy used on lighting, computers and other technology will be reduced even further using the PassivEnergy energy management system. The first school is scheduled for completion in September 2010 and will be an exemplar of how Zero Carbon Schools will be delivered.

ModCell® is one of the first products to make large-scale, carbon-negative building a commercial reality. The ModCell® system utilises the excellent thermal insulation qualities of straw bale and hemp construction to form prefabricated panels, made in a local Flying Factory™. This allows super-insulated, high-performance, low energy ‘passive’ schools to be built using renewable, locally sourced, carbon sequestering materials.

The BSF programme is the biggest-ever school buildings investment programme, with the aim being to rebuild or renew every school in the UK.

“BSF provides an enormous market opportunity for ModCell and PassivSystems and the recent £600m Somerset County Council selection of its preferred bidder for its schools shows just how big,” explained Craig White, of ModCell. “The combination of our two companies’ technologies makes for an extremely compelling proposition, enabling schools to reduce their carbon emissions drastically.”

Once the schools are constructed, PassivSystems will supply its energy management system, PassivEnergy into every classroom, the first time occupancy management has been used in schools. PassivEnergy works using sensors and actuators that connect to a building’s heating, hot water and electrical appliances and manages them via an online account.

PassivEnergy also has an innovative ‘Adaptive Occupancy Control’ function to further optimise energy use, which will learn about a school’s working day and automatically adjust and control energy consumption accordingly.

“Adding PassivEnergy to the ModCell® Renewable Schools’ super efficient building system will make these first schools a blueprint for any further schools intent on lowering carbon emissions,” said Colin Calder, CEO of PassivSystems. “A school’s energy needs will vary on an hourly basis and from classroom to classroom and PassivEnergy will learn and manage those requirements to significantly reduce energy use.”

ModCell and PassivSystems finalised the agreement to work together on the Clean and Cool Mission to San Francisco, which took place last week. The mission saw 19 leading UK clean tech companies spend a week in San Francisco taking part in a range of activities designed to help them open up their business to the US market.

Ian Gray Chief Executive of the Technology Strategy Board said:

“We are delighted to hear that Clean and Cool Mission has brought together two of the UK’s clean tech Companies to develop a joint offering into the Building Schools for the Future programme. The mission was a huge success with companies reporting a high success rate in establishing new contacts, starting valuable interactions with venture capitalists and forming new and exciting collaborations, such as the partnership between ModcCell and PassivSystems. The unique combination of high energy efficiency, use of renewable materials, and the ability to capture and store carbon in the structure, that the ModCell renewable School offers combined with the energy control that PassivSystems delivers, are a very exciting prospect for the market.”

Click here to download the full press release

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at 11:43 am and is filed under CCMission. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.