ODA declares green infrastructure 'complete'

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) has declared the final two elements of its “Games time” green infrastructure complete, just ahead of the launch of LOCOG’s pre-games sustainability report.

The ODA said it had now completed the London 2012 Energy Centre and had installed solar panels to the roof of the games’ Main Press Centre.

It also named 12 Olympic-borough schools that EDF will install energy-saving tecnology into as part of the RE:FIT programme plan to cut their energy consumption by 25% a year from september, resulting a saving of some 700 tonnes of carbon.

ODA chief executive Dennis Hone said said the authority was on track to exceed a challenging 50% target to reduce the carbon footprint of the Olympic Park.

“We set out to push the boundaries on the construction of the Olympic Park to see how sustainable we could make the venues and infrastructure - not just for the Games but for years afterwards,” he said.

“The result is one that the UK construction and engineering industries can be proud of as a showcase of innovation and careful planning.”

The London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) will tomorrow release its pre-Games sustainability, capturing both the work the ODA has done in addition to the substantial effort being made this summer by the Organising Committee to reduce its projected carbon footprint by at least 6,000 tonnes.

The Olympic Park’s Energy Centre is now fully operational and has a three megawatt biomass boiler, which is around 30 per cent more efficient that traditional heat and power generation methods. It uses ammonia chillers, high efficiency gas boilers and a combined cooling heat and power plant to power venues on the site. During Games-time, the Energy Centre will provide heating and cooling to the Olympic buildings, and will export low carbon power to the national grid.

Work on connecting the facility to an existing building which houses the biomass boiler and will become a visitor centre after the Games is also complete.