How do you make a wind tunnel carbon neutral ?

[Reventon]

http://www.autosport.com/news/grapevine.php/id/99275

The Woking-based team earned the Carbon Trust Standard last year after becoming carbon neutral

I'm assuming McLaren have their own wind tunnel which uses a small towns worth of power, so how have they made it carbon neutral ?

or is there some other trick going on here ?

[Holm86]

Hamster wheels.

[PlatinumZealot]

They probably use the soot and Carbon dioxide for some secondary process.
Possible in a combination using the least amount of carbon based fuel as they need for heating/cooking etc.

[Nickel]

You buy lots of offsets?

[PlatinumZealot]

I don't understand what you mean there, Nickel.

[Pup]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_offset

Same way F1 went carbon neutral. Basically, you subsidize someone else's green project if your own isn't readily achievable.

[Lycoming]

Thats really the only way they can do it. It's not like they have an onsite power plant from which they can sweep up the coal dust.

I'm pretty sure I read at some point that this was how they did it. Tho only other things they can do is plant more trees or cattails in that pond they use as a reservoir to cool the wind tunnel.

[Richard]

Yup, it uses carbon offsets plus low energy measures in the building operation. So that lake is used for air conditioning, and they will have a raft of energy efficient building technologies & controls.

Of course facts are hard to come by because the designers will be warned about Ron's obsessive control of publicity.

[xpensive]

Perhaps they have their own nuclear reactor?

[Crucial_Xtreme]

Perhaps they have their own nuclear reactor?

Geothermal heating & cooling maybe? Just another notch under the carbon neutral belt.

[Lycoming]

Somehow I don't think surrey is a hotbed of geothermal activity.

[snoop1050]

Somehow I don't think surrey is a hotbed of geothermal activity.

why not? in newcastle they digged 2000metres down looking for water thats 80c

[Trocola]

And what do McLaren employees breathe? Because they produce carbon dioxide too when exhaling...


Trocola

[xpensive]

"The Woking-based team earned the Carbon Trust Standard last year after becoming carbon neutral."

Really, does that count for race-weekends as well?

[Reventon]

they must spend a fortune on offsets!

I remember Damon Hill once saying that the entire grid only used the same amount of fuel in a year as 1 Jumbo crossing the Atlantic, that was all testing, quali & racing, in the days of unlimited testing as well, don't know how true that is?