Case Histories

Scoring Environmental Goals At Netham Pavilion

Netham Park Community Sports Pavilion is a new £1.7 million community sports pavilion in east Bristol. The pavilion’s hot water and heating is provided by a 150kW woodfuel boiler,which services the first rate facilities, including eight new changing rooms, community room and cafe. A 2,000 L buffer tank has been included to allow for high instantaneous hot water usage, when the showers are in use and to reduce the short cycling of the boiler under low load conditions.

Forest Fuels supplies the wood chip and ensures the maximum moisture of the fuel is 35% to enable the Binder boiler to work at its optimum capacity. Natural levels on the site have been used to create an underground fuel store, which allows the wood chip to be delivered by a tipping vehicle in a matter of a few minutes. The base of the fuel store and boiler house is on the same level, with access to the boiler house from the back of the pavilion. The dimensions are 4m by 4m with a depth of 2.5m giving an active volume of approx 35m3.

Bristol City Council is one of the most committed advocates of woodfuel energy in the public sector. They are committed to reducing carbon emissions by 3% to 2020 and by 60% by 2050.

Netham Pavilion is the latest woodfuel boiler to be commissioned in the city. Four new secondary schools about to be built in Bristol will also harness biomass energy, resulting in the largest biomass heat cluster for woodfuel technology in the UK.