| Allan Jones | |
|---|---|
| Born | Dartford, United Kingdom |
| Fields | Engineering, Combined Heat and Power systems (CHP), renewable energy, fuel cells and climate change |
| Institutions | City of Sydney |
| Known for | CHP, energy and climate change work in Woking, London and Sydney Ecology |
| Notable awards | MBE in the 1999 New Year's honours list for services to energy and water efficiency |
Allan Jones MBE, is an engineer who pioneered Combined Heat and Power (CHP), renewable energy and fuel cell systems in the United Kingdom and Australia from 1990 to the present.
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Jones attended Sheerwater Secondary Modern, Woking; Guildford College of Technology and the Central London Polytechnic. During his early career he spent 18 years with Greater London Council and Inner London Education Authority, working on development and regeneration projects, but is known for his energy and climate change work, particularly decentralised energy in Woking, London and Sydney.
In 2000, Jones was awarded an MBE in the New Year's honours list for services to energy and water efficiency.
From 1971 to 1989 Jones worked for the Greater London Council (1971 to 1986) and the Inner London Education Authority (1986 to 1989) on major development and regeneration projects, both as an engineer and senior manager. His work included housing projects, the Andover Town Development, County Hall projects, Burgess Park (a new lake and park), the first networked Building Energy Management System in the UK and various school and college projects.
Jones was a member of the Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Management Board (1983 to 1986) and a member of the Department of Building and Property Services Management Board (1986 to 1989).
From 1989 to 2004 Jones worked for Woking Borough Council, initially as building services manager and then as energy services manager. He was instrumental in establishing Thameswey Ltd, the Council’s energy and environmental services company, and Thameswey Energy Ltd, its public/private joint venture company which developed and implemented decentralised energy projects for the public and private sectors.
During his time at Woking, Jones reduced CO2 emissions by 77.5% and improved the energy efficiency of council housing by 30%. He also undertook groundbreaking work on energy and water efficiency, including:
Under Jones, Woking installed the first fuel cell CHP in the UK. The Council also installed 81 private wire decentralised energy systems - amounting to nearly 10% of all the installed solar energy photovoltaics in the UK.
In 2001, Woking's local energy systems were recognised by a Queens Award for Enterprise in sustainable development. Woking is the only local authority ever to receive such an award.
In 2004, Ken Livingston, the then Mayor of London, recruited Jones to head up the London Climate Change Agency Ltd. Jones set up the organisation and was its chief executive officer until 2008. Established as a municipal company, the Climate Change Agency developed and implemented projects in the sectors that impact on climate change the most - energy, water, waste and transport.
As well as steamrolling decentralised energy and renewable energy projects in London, Jones contributed the energy and climate change elements of the London Plan, the Mayor’s Climate Change Action Plan and the Mayoral Climate Change Statutory Duty.
He established the London ESCO (energy services company) Ltd, a joint venture between the London Climate Change Agency and EDF Energy plc. It designs, finances, builds and operates decentralised energy systems for new and existing development. Jones was appointed an executive director of London ESCO on behalf of the London Climate Change Agency.
He also representing the Climate Change Agency as a director of the Better Buildings Partnership Ltd, a company (limited by guarantee) that enabled major landlords in London to reduce CO2 emissions from commercial and public buildings.
On 22 May 2008, Jones appeared in an interview, shot in London and Woking, as part of Australian ABC's "Catalyst" programme (2008 Episode 14). The story outlined his work in Woking and featured the Climate Change Agency's plans for implementing decentralised energy systems in London.
This led to Jones being invited to visit Sydney as a guest of the City of Sydney and the New South Wales Government. A public talk 'City Talk: Green Transformers, revolutionising energy generation for a Sustainable Sydney' was held on Tuesday 22 July 2008 at the Theatre Royal, MLC Centre, King St, Sydney. The visit also included media coverage, like that on ABC Radio National's Saturday Extra program.
From 2007 to 2009 Jones was a director/trustee of the Sustainable Environment Foundation, which promotes the conservation, protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment.
In 2008 and 2009, Jones worked as an energy and climate change consultant in the UK and overseas, including working for the City of Sydney on a number of projects and advising on the delivery of the climate change targets set out in the City's Sustainable Sydney 2030 plan.
In 2009, Jones was appointed as chief development officer, energy and climate change by the City of Sydney to provide leadership, strategic direction and high level advocacy. His role includes promoting the changes needed to support the development and delivery of green infrastructure as set out in the Sustainable Sydney 2030 plan. Sydney has an ambitious target to reduce CO2 emissions by 70% (based on 2006 levels) by 2030. The target will see at least 330MWe of combined heat and power (CHP) or trigeneration delivering 70% of the City’s electricity requirements (with the remainder coming from local renewable energy) by 2030.
To deliver on targets, Jones developed a Green Infrastructure Plan which works on two levels. Firstly, it is being implemented in the City where Decentralised Energy Master Plans, Trigeneration, Renewable Energy and Alternative Waste Treatment, Decentralised Water and Automated Waste Master Plans will be embedded into Council's master and operational plans. An Interim Trigeneration Master Plan for the energy dense Central Business District and Green Square, completed by the Kinesis consortium (which also includes Cogent Energy and Origin Energy, would reduce the City of Sydney’s greenhouse gas emissions by between 1.1 million and 1.7 million tonnes a year. This represents a reduction in those emissions of between 39 per cent and 56 per cent for the building sector and between 18 per cent and 26 per cent of the overall Sustainable Sydney 2030 target. The Interim Master Plan is on public exhibition until Friday 28 January 2011, and the final Trigeneration Master Plan is expected to be completed in 2011.
Secondly, the Green Infrastructure Plan enables the City of Sydney to lead the way in New South Wales by installing local generation and green infrastructure projects in its own operations. Jones adopted this “show by doing” principle in Woking and London to demonstrate that if the public sector leads, others will follow.
At this level, the City is implementing a range of projects to reduce its own CO2 emissions by 48% from 2009 to 2012 as a first step towards the 70% reduction target for its own buildings and operations. Several energy efficiency retrofits and renewable energy installations in City buildings saw a 17% reduction in CO2 emissions in the first year of the project.
City of Sydney
London Climate Change Agency
Woking Borough Council
Decentralised energy