To Celebrate #CleanAirDay on Thursday (21st June 2018) & Green Transport Week (Friday 22nd June – 1st July) I thought I’d give a brief update on Milton Keynes and it’s EV/Green infrastructure, perks and incentives.
Our town (often referred to as a city) I’m not suggesting is perfect but this hopefully will give you an insight into what’s possible in your town or why you may be interested in living/visiting in MK.
Disclaminer: I’ve not been asked to post about any of these services/brands.
This article goes hand-in-hand with my article on the GoUltraLow website ‘A guide to Milton Keynes for electric car owners‘
Free EV Parking (normally £2-£0.50/hr or £315-£630.00+ a year) – Free Green Permit – Allows you to park in 15,000+ bays for free.
For anyone that works in MK or wants to visit to see the sights of Milton Keynes, e.g. Bletchley Park, EV experience Centre, Tesla MK, Indoor SnoZone, Intu Shopping, the centre:MK, Campbell Park, Theatre District, TheHub, Cycle Redways, etc the council offer a FREE (normally £315-£630+ a year) Green EV Parking Permit for all 100% BEVs (Battery Electric Vehicles) and best of all the permits are VIRTUAL, they get approved almost instantly and they’re open to EVERYONE (regardless of where you live).
The parking permits allow you to park in the town centre for free in any of the ‘G’ Permit Holder Parking Locations which are basically Purple (50p/hr), Red + Black (£2/hr), Orange + White (50p/hr) and Purple + Yellow (50p/hr) on the attached Map.
Apply for your FREE green permit | More info on Green Permits | Download Parking Map
170 fast EV chargers and 56 rapid EV chargers
You can also ‘park’ for free if you’re also charging (9p/kWh) at any of the 170 fast chargers (7kW Type 2) or 56 rapid chargers (CHAdeMO) Learn more: https://polar-network.com/live-map-mk/ or PlugShare.com
Electric buses with 120 kW induction plate wireless charging
These electric buses (8 of them) start at 6am in the morning fully charged and can stay out all day, returning at 11.30pm with 40% thanks to their wireless charging facilities along their routes.
Back to back test drive 13 different Electric Vehicles &/or rent them for a weekend for £50 each
Visit the EV Experience Centre | Visit Tesla MK
Rent a Renault Zoe for £4.50/hr (inc insurance/power)
Driverless EV Pods / EV Delivery Robot Drones
From transporting people from the train station to nearby offices to delivering pizzas across the town we have lots of automation, both using full self-driving capabilities and of course electric motors/batteries.
Learn more about Self Driving Pods | Delivery Robot Drones
217+ miles worth of Redways (dedicated cycle paths) – all painted red spanning the whole town
The largest urban cycleway system in Europe (or so I’m told).
Learn more about ‘Get Cycling’ | Find a route | Learn more about Redways | MKHighways
MK:Smart & MK Data Hub / LoRa network
Collecting data about driving behaviour of EVs in Milton Keynes & tracking energy usage across the town to create an Open Energy Map.
Whilst also creating a mesh network of IOT (internet of things) devices across the town, including soil moisture, recycling bin usage, water levels, weather stations, bus sensors and many more.
Learn about MK:Smart | Access the Data Hub | Developer Toolkit
Low Carbon Living & Imagine MK 2050 Strategies.
A planned 40% carbon emissions reduction by 2020, with an ambition of a near zero carbon city by 2050.
HotMaps
The overarching goal of Hotmaps is the development of an open source heating / cooling mapping and planning toolbox and to provide default data for EU28 at national and local level. These data and tool allow public authorities to identify, analyse, model and map resources and solutions to supply energy needs within their territory of responsibility in a resource and cost-efficient way.
Learn more + Download the dataset
GetSorted MK
Get Sorted MK! is the new recycling campaign for Milton Keynes. Many people recycle their rubbish very well but everyone could do a little more to help make MK a greener more environmentally friendly place.
Each participating parish receives a financial reward for signing up to ‘Get Sorted MK’ plus the opportunity to ‘earn’ additional payments if the amount of contamination goes down.
Green Spaces (thanks to The Parks Trust)
Because Milton Keynes was built around an existing canal & waterway system it meant the whole town is covered in countryside and parks. The Parks Trust do a superb job of keeping the main park spaces (~6000 acres) well maintained and to a high standard whilst also laying on over 200 of the 550+ events that happen in the parks each year.
Learn more about Milton Keynes’ Parks & Green Spaces
Anaerobic digestion plant (Green Gas / ‘Renewable’ Energy Production) + other slightly greener waste removals
Food & garden waste from homes goes through an anaerobic digestion process, it is effectively a controlled and enclosed version of the anaerobic breakdown of organic waste in landfill which releases methane and has a capacity of 32,000 tonnes per year. This was the first time that this type of gas injection was installed in the UK and provides a significant increase in the renewable gas available to Milton Keynes residents.
Any non-recyclable items or non-perishable items are converted into electricity using an advanced thermal treatment (ATT) plant, although this isn’t fully green most people suggest it’s superior to other methods like landfill, the waste is transformed into a gas (synthesis gas or syngas), which in turn is combusted to generate high-temperature steam which creates electricity in a turbine.
LED lighting across the town
The Council are spending around £6-8M a year in the upkeep and improvement of the lighting around MK. The new LED lights installed from 2013 onwards has seen a reduction of up to 70% in energy costs and in addition, they’ve reduced their maintenance costs by 60% as a result of this capital investment. All the street lights will be replaced by 2020.
Secure Bicycle Storage
156 secure cycle lockers (£60 per year or £36 per six months with a refundable key deposit of £50.)
A shower and changing facility located on Witan Gate/Midsummer Boulevard. £288 per year paid monthly by direct debit and includes the use of a secure cycle locker. To apply to use the facility email [email protected]
Santander Cycle Hire
“300 cycles available for hire from 42 docking stations across Milton Keynes and the surrounding area”
Learn more about Green Transport Week
https://www.eta.co.uk/trust/green-transport-week/
Learn more about #CleanAirDay
https://www.cleanairday.org.uk/ & https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/