Birmingham is a city with global ambitions on sustainability and tackling climate change.

Our ambition is to make the Beorma Quarter an exemplar of best practice for undertaking modern development projects in an environmentally sustainable manner. We are using the latest technology and the unique natural resources available on this historic site to make a major impact on carbon emissions.

The use of a state of the art geo-thermal system known as Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) will enable the Beorma Quarter to make a major leap in achieving success in this field. Running beneath the site are ancient wells and under the auspices of the Environment Agency, we will tap into these through six 100 metre energy boreholes. The ATES facility will sit

above, connected into the buildings on the development, and operate a system that delivers an interseasonal energy ‘pendulum’ effect. In this, heat from each building will be extracted in the warmer months, creating a cooling effect, and this will be stored in the water beneath the site to be extracted in winter and used for heating, greatly reducing the need for external energy provision.

The combination of an energy efficiency scheme, a CHP plant and an ATES system will deliver significant environmental benefits for the city. It is estimated that by using these three elements together the Beorma Quarter will produce over 25% less CO2 than a standard development of this scale, playing a major part in helping Birmingham to achieve its global ambitions on sustainability.