Sunbelt’s low-emission Net

23 August 2021

Sunbelt Rentals is helping Balfour Beatty reduce carbon emissions at more than 40 construction sites by rolling out more widely its cloud-based energy and power management system called Eco-Lync, which the contractor calls EcoNet.

Developed in association with Balfour Beatty and Invisible Systems, the system reduces emissions from diesel generators powering temporary site accommodation. 

Using wireless sensors, the system automatically turns appliances off when not in active use. A transmitter monitors energy demand in real-time and a receiver is placed inside the cabins to isolate circuits and turn off equipment as necessary.

Sunbelt says that Eco-Lync allows construction sites to reduce their energy and carbon levels by between 30% and 80%, typically allowing users to switch from a 100kVA generator to a 60kVA model.

 The system was first used on a Balfour Beatty ring road project around Leeds city centre where, within six months, an 83% reduction in carbon emissions across the site was achieved. The installation was run on a grid supply, actively managing electric vehicle charging and optimising the heating, hot water and external lighting running schedules.

Eco-Lync has since been adopted on 41 other sites nationwide and is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 7,296 tonnes. 

On another road improvement project near Chester, a conventional generator set-up has been replaced with an Eco-Lync+ variant, with an unsynchronised pair of generators providing load on-demand and saving 44% of fuel and carbon emissions.

Balfour Beatty says it is so impressed with the system that it will install it at any new site in the UK with more than six cabins. 

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