As world leaders prepare to gather in Glasgow for what’s being branded as the last chance to put the world on track to meet climate targets, COP26 provides an opportunity for Scotland to shine a light on its leading-edge climate tech solutions.

Scotland is famous for its ingenuity when it comes to extraordinary, life-changing solutions and innovations, and the country continues to live up to its reputation in delivering technology that will play a major role in tackling climate change.

COP26 will highlight a number of crucial collaborations, affirming the commitment of Scottish businesses to act on climate and make a real difference to the future of our planet.

The Herald:

One such company is Glasgow-based IES (Integrated Environmental Solutions) , a leading climate tech company specialising in the development of physics-based digital twin technology for decarbonising buildings and cities.

Digital twins are highly accurate 3D virtual models of real-world assets (such as buildings) which behave and respond like their real-world counterparts. In the built environment, these live twins combine real data, physics-based simulations, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), to create highly accurate models that evolve with the buildings themselves.

This provides a virtual environment from which to test and compare which interventions and proposed net-zero strategies will return the best outcomes in terms of energy use, CO2 emissions, comfort, health and costs, prior to implementation in the real world.

Digital twins are therefore a crucial tool in de-risking the all important decisions that need to be made to help take any built environment – whether a single building, community, campus, or city – towards its decarbonisation targets.

This technology is already being used on many projects, both globally and locally, including a number of ambitious net-zero projects happening right here in the host city.

University of Glasgow

The University of Glasgow has recently been working closely with IES to create a digital twin of its Western Campus, to support its ambition of achieving net-zero by 2030.

The University of Glasgow and IES partnership on the Western Campus project started in early 2019, when IES was engaged through the University’s £1bn Smart Campus Initiative.

Currently undergoing a massive re-development to encompass the 14-acre site of the old Western Infirmary, the new campus will sit at the heart of the city’s cultural quarter, creating a new public route between the university and the Kelvingrove, Kelvinhall and Riverside museums.

IES was already working with the university on an Innovate UK funded R&D project, called EDigit2Life, focused on creating digital twins of the university’s new buildings on campus, using IES’s recently launched Intelligent Communities Lifecycle (ICL) platform. However, the Estates team felt it was equally as important to encompass the existing campus buildings, since retrofitting of existing buildings presents an even bigger challenge to achieving the university’s 2030 net-zero target.

Given that 80% of buildings that will exist in 2050 have already been built, and with older buildings generally consuming more energy than newer builds, addressing them from a climate change perspective is particularly important.

Working in partnership was paramount when developing the digital twin as the university’s Estates team are experts in their buildings and the electronic systems used to control them, whilst IES provide building modelling, twinning expertise and the systems to allow deeper interrogation of the data to help produce more useful and reliable results.

The Estates team also has a long history of working with MEng and MSc students from the Engineering department, in order to build models, gather information and undertake first pass assessments of energy and sustainability initiatives.

A Living Lab collaboration between IES, the School of Engineering and the Estates department was therefore the obvious choice to bring together applied teaching, research and zero-carbon building/campus management within one platform. The technology is already proving to be extremely beneficial in helping the university understand how their buildings are performing and, more importantly, how they can improve them to make their net-zero carbon target a reality.

“Digital twinning of buildings and networks is an exciting new space for energy management and we are really pleased to be working with a great team of people in IES to show the art of the possible using our estate both old and new. The plan is to bring more buildings into the digital twin and create a staged Zero-Carbon plan on how the University will target the right projects, in the right buildings in order to meet our 2030 target.” - Gillian Brown, Energy Manager, University of Glasgow

Pollok Park

As part of an ongoing collaboration with Glasgow City Council (GCC) and Glasgow Life, IES has also created a digital twin of Glasgow’s Pollok Park to support the city’s commitment to reaching Net Zero Carbon by 2030. Helping maximise use of the city’s green and blue infrastructure in order to mitigate emissions across the estate.

Utilising the very latest technological advancements, the digital twin created by IES aims to provide greater understanding of Pollok Park’s complex eco-system, helping the council, citizens and other key stakeholders see first-hand how and where energy is used and generated across the estate.

The Herald:

The digital twin is being used to inform decision-making on how to make the park energy independent and take it off-grid, generating energy and heat locally. The digital twin allows the council to run different scenarios virtually and to understand the opportunities and limitations of various net-zero approaches.

The park has a unique history with energy dating back to the days when Clydesdale Horses were the inspiration for Glasgow-based engineer James Watt in calculating the power of his new steam engine and popularising the term ‘horse powered’ in order to market his powerful new engine.

The restored, A-Listed, 17th Century Pollok House Stables in Pollok Park will become the ‘Home of the Clydesdale Horse’ and aims to become the world centre for this iconic breed, protecting it for future generations.

The park’s rich energy history developed through the industrial revolution, when it became home to a water mill that was first used as a flourmill, then a saw mill and a water turbine power station in the mid-19th century. Currently unused, it is today being considered as part of a sustainable energy solution for the park.

For more information, visit www.iesve.com/discoveries/video/19968/herald-panel-discussion-sept-21

 

IES at COP26

To shine a light on the role that digital twin technology can play in accelerating the drive towards a greener, decarbonised built environment, IES will be hosting and participating in a comprehensive programme of events – both on the ground and virtually - throughout COP26.

For more information or to register for any of the events within IES’s COP26 programme, visit www.iesve.com/cop26