Art and Design is a big part of the relationship between enfinium and Sandwell College, with the new Net Zero Site’s roof being built to mirror Sandwell College’s own iconic roof.
And now a birdbox, designed by three of our Art and Design students (Kaitlyn Cook, David Frimpong and Kajin Yesari), has been selected to take pride of place at the new Kelvin Way site. The birdbox has been designed to incorporate the enfinium logo and provides a safe place for birds to nest and eat.
A few weeks ago, Phillip Curds and Chris Swanick of enfinium, visited Sandwell College to brief the students on the opportunity to create a functional item or piece of art from wood, metals, pipework and associated materials used to build enfinium’s new facility ‘Kelvin’ and the birdbox is the first one to be approved for development.
The designers of the chosen artwork attended a site visit at enfinium’s Kelvin Way offices alongside Sandwell College’s Head of Creative Industries, Head of Construction and Fab Lab Manager (Michelle King, Clive Coley and Anne Scrimshaw), during which they heard about enfinium’s plans to transform the facility into a ‘Net Zero Hub’ – that will take waste from across the West Midlands utilising technology such as heat networks, carbon capture and storage and electrolytic hydrogen to accelerate decarbonisation across the region – and saw the construction work currently taking place.
Due to come online from 2025, the Kelvin energy-from-waste facility will produce homegrown energy from non-recyclable waste that would otherwise go to landfill or be exported abroad. 395,000 tonnes of waste will be processed by the facility every year, producing enough electricity to power 95,000 homes. 400 jobs will be supported during the project’s construction, with an additional 40 roles created once operational.
The Kelvin facility alone could use its renewable power to produce enough low carbon hydrogen to continuously fuel hundreds of HGVs operating in the region.
