Next Project

The Energy Exchange

Part 1 Project 2022
Dafyn Richards
University of Plymouth | UK
Micro generation once was at the heart of Keyham, Plymouth, but the withdrawal of industry, centralisation of power, and a global pandemic are headline factors that have, over the course of half a century, plunged a once prosperous community into deprivation and hardship. With the UK’s continued reliance on imported and politically weaponised fossil fuels, and a failure of government to take adequate action against rising energy and living costs, we find ourselves in a spiralling crisis. With an eye to the future based on current trends, the proposal critiques the UK’s current method of procuring energy.

Situated at the heart of a strategic masterplan, the The Energy Exchange forms part of a wider development of a brownfield site, formerly Keyham quarry, contributing to social and economic sustainability strategies. The proposal houses an anaerobic digestor providing carbon-neutral gas to the local community. In exchange of bio-waste, users are provided with a platform to generate their own power and participate in the governance of their own micro-generated energy. Reversing the sites historic carbon intensive trend of extraction and redistribution, the proposals reliance on waste mitigates its past and re-establishes a node within a fragmented community.


Tutor(s)


2022
• Page Hits: 3990         • Entry Date: 18 August 2022         • Last Update: 18 August 2022