NEWS | HEAT NETWORK PROJECTS Renewable heating retrot breaks ground in Essex Storage heaters in Essex tower blocks to be replaced with ground source heat pumps Government investment in a renewable heating retrofit project in Thurrock, Essex, is set to reduce fuel bills by more than 50%. In the wake of a recent report, by the Climate Change Committee, that criticised the governments poor delivery on targets for net zero, the scheme aims to demonstrate the potential of ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) to rapidly and affordably decarbonise multiple properties at scale. Across three tower blocks in Chadwell St Mary, Thurrock, 273 storage heaters will be replaced with Kensa GSHPs, which will deliver three times more energy efficiency for the residents. Kensa Utilities is an infrastructure asset company that funds, owns and maintains shared ground loops that serve heat pump installations. It uses subsidy support to provide these assets at zero cost to the housebuilder or social landlord. Thurrock Council secured 3.2m from Wave 1 of the government s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) to help finance the scheme. The SHDF is a 3.8bn 2019 manifesto commitment to support local authorities and social landlords to retrofit their housing stock at scale, over a 10-year period. More than half of the recipients in Chadwell have been identified as at risk of experiencing The new heat pumps will replace 273 storage heaters fuel poverty. Kensa claims the project will secure 40-50% savings on annual energy bills, with average running costs of a two-bed home calculated at 477 per year. More than 34% of all emissions in the UK are attributed to the provision of heat. The installation of the heat pump systems at Chadwell St Mary is expected to provide more than a 70% reduction in carbon emissions. Total emissions savings are projected to be 7,080 tons of CO2 over the life of the installation, significantly improving local air quality and reducing the carbon footprint of the residences. The government has set a target for 600,000 heat pumps to be installed per year by 2028. More than 80% of UK homes will still be in use in 2050, so existing buildings will have to undergo significant improvements or deep retrofitting to meet the challenge of decarbonisation. To support this, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has confirmed that GSHP systems similar to those at Chadwell St Mary are eligible for funding. Wave 2 of the SHDF is expected to be open for applications in late August/early September this year. Improvement solutions will be given to registered social housing properties with an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of D or lower and will lift the EPC rating to at least a C. Taylor Wimpey trials smart heat network The Chilton Woods housing scheme in Sudbury, Suffolk, will have 950 homes connected to a heat network and thermal store One of the UKs largest housebuilders, Taylor Wimpey, is partnering with GTC in a pilot project to deliver heat via a community heat hub, to a development site in Chilton Woods, Sudbury. GTC has designed a heat network solution for new-build, low-rise developments. Hot water is produced centrally in a community hub, using large-scale heat pumps powered by Grid electricity. Currently in the planning stage, the development consists of 1,150 new homes, of which 950 will be connected to the heat network. The first phase of 200 units is currently planned to be heated by natural gas. Hot water will be fed to individual homes through a highly insulated plastic-pipe heat network. Flow temperature will be at 60C, with a return temperature of 25-30C. Central, large-scale air source heat pumps (ASHPs) are used as the primary source of heat, supplying more than 95% throughout the year. The thermal water-storage tank in the hub is charged when wholesale electricity costs are lower. This reduces peak demand on the Grid, lessening the need for reinforcement. Back-up electric boilers ensure a resilient supply of hot water. Plant operation is optimised to suit hot-water requirements by deployment of smart control systems developed by Passiv UK. Offering demand-balancing services to the upstream distribution network operator, in return for capacity payments, further enhances this. The network will operate with heat losses of less than 20%. Independent assessment of the design solution and operating parameters have been 28 August 2022 www.cibsejournal.com undertaken to ensure that the network performs in line with expectations. GTC claims its network solution will generally be a lower cost to the homeowner than the alternative of running an individual ASHP in the home. By the time these homes are connected to the heat network, the price and the service levels customers receive will be protected through regulation by Ofgem. Alternative heat sources have been considered; hydrogen could be deployed if this becomes viable. The plant is sized to feed the consented development; however, the modular nature of the heat hub means it can be scaled to accommodate additional homes if required later. Thermal energy storage will connect with 950 homes at Chilton Woods, Sudbury