From ambitious concept to achievable reality—designing a building that generates more power than it consumes

Bay Technology Centre - Engineering and Sustainability Design

Driven by their Decarbonisation and Renewable Energy Strategy, Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council wanted their planned office and laboratory building to go beyond net zero. They wanted the new facility to produce more energy than it consumed, to become 'a building as a power station.' The Council engaged us to provide multidisciplinary engineering design services for this ambitious project.

Working closely with both the architect and contractor, we took a forensic approach to the design process. This involved determining predicted energy use and equivalent generation through simulation of occupancy and equipment usage. We established a baseline for operational energy consumption and fine-tuned the technologies and passive measures to show that the building could generate more energy than it would consume.

From there, we focused on complete passive design, making the building fabric airtight as well as optimising construction orientation and massing. Our team incorporated efficiencies such as a hybrid variable refrigerant flow heat, cooling, and central air handling unit with heat recovery, delivering fresh air via a demand control system, which reduces the fan running times. We also fine-tuned the building management system so that non-essential equipment shuts down completely when not in use, and only low-level lights operate at night.

Additionally, we encouraged the use of a highly efficient mix of renewable and low-carbon technologies, particularly photovoltaics (PV). To increase the area available for solar capture, our design located all mechanical and electrical equipment inside while integrating PV modules into the facades that would be most exposed to sunlight.

Upon its completion, Bay Technology Centre at Baglan Energy Park, Port Talbot, was the first commercial facility in Wales to be energy positive in operation. The long-term ambition for this project is to deliver excess energy to the neighbouring Hydrogen Centre to produce clean hydrogen and power local authority vehicles.