Glasgow-based Star Renewable Energy (
www.neatpump.com)is to design and build a large-scale heat pump to work with a solar-energy installation and supply Eon’s community energy centre in Cranbrook with heating and hot water.
This low-carbon heating venture is the first of its kind in the UK to merge large-scale heat pumps and solar thermal panels with contributions from solar photo-voltaic and dedicated heat storage systems in a large-scale district heating network.
It has secured funding from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and it is ‘co-pioneered’ by Eon, the University of Exeter and SK Solar. The aim of the project is to improve the performance of heat networks and show how the combined technologies can replace — or work alongside — the existing combined heat and power (CHP) district heating scheme to provide lower-cost — and significantly lower-carbon — heating and hot water.
It is one of nine schemes sharing £6 million of funding from the DECC.
The key challenge for the project partners is the operation, control and optimisation of the dual technologies to supply one of the country’s largest new-build district heating systems with low-carbon heat directly from sunshine. Engineers have risen to the task and created a strategy that, if successful, will deliver a secure heat source, as well as financial and CO2 savings.
As part of the project, Star will install a high-temperature (>80°C) heat pump that will draw heat from about 2,000m2 of ground-mounted solar thermal panels.
These panels will produce hot water at 55°C during the day, and the temperature will be boosted to 80°C overnight when electricity is at its cheapest, to meet the peak morning demand for hot water.
A network of super-insulated underground pipes will eventually deliver the harvested heat to 3,500 new homes in Cranbrook, as well as 1.4 million ft2 of Skypark industrial space.
Dave Pearson, Director of Star Renewable Energy, said: “This project is a new breed of heating solution. We believe that harvesting heat from sunshine or rivers is the “new settlement” with energy — investing in heat pumps uses local jobs and skills and has far less reliance on imported fuels. Smarter heating solutions can be the catalyst for more jobs and a better environment.”