Project of the Year – Commercial/ Industrial
Jaguar Land Rover Engine Manufacturing Centre (JLR EMC), Wolverhampton - Ove Arup & Partners
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JLR’s Engine Manufacturing Centre – the result of £500 million of investment – was planned for the production of 450,000 engines a year. The 100,000 sq m building houses administration, staff-support areas, engineering design and development, engine test cells and finished product storage, plus machining and assembly halls.
It was the first in the roll-out of similar facilities worldwide and as such it was required to set a new benchmark in terms of sustainability and workplace environment for the firm. From the outset, the client’s brief expressed the building performance objectives under four broad headings: corporate values, working environment, sustainability, and social engagement.
Designed in two phases, handover of the first phase had to be achieved just 18 months after the appointment of the design team. A comprehensive energy management system is being used to monitor consumption and target improvement both by JLR internal staff and third party support. This system enables separate metering of building systems down to individual air handling units and also meters process energy down to each production team or major process.
A detailed feasibility study of the photovoltaic array options led to the decision to install an array covering the maximum rooftop area available. It has generated 2.8 GWh per annum to date, saving 2 Mt of carbon dioxide emissions. Monitoring carried out on site indicates that the array contributed approximately 6% of the energy used on site during 2014, although this was not a full year of operation.
In addition to the PV array the building also benefi ts from a solar thermal installation to pre-heat domestic hot water for the central facilities.
The project demonstrates JLR’s long-term commitment to holistic life-cycle sustainability and has achieved BREEAM Excellent and an Energy Performance Certificate Rating of A.