The Glasgow manufacturers responsible for the invention of the world’s largest zero carbon 90ᵒC district heat pump has been shortlisted for a green tech award, with the chance of winning £20,000 to go towards the next project.

Star Renewable Energy will present live the Neatpump technology, an industrial heat pump that uses rivers, lakes, reservoirs and the sea to generate heating and cooling while balancing the grid, to a group of investors, buyers and industry specialists at Glasgow’s Technology Innovation Centre.

The green credentials of the Neatpump have been highlighted to good effect with the groundbreaking deployment of the industrial district heating system in Drammen, a Norwegian city with 65,000 people that draw on the pioneering technology built on the Clyde to heat the whole city, including its businesses, hospitals and schools with water from the local fjord.

David Pearson, director of Star Renewable Energy who will be presenting the technology at the event said: “In Drammen, the Neat pump provides annual savings of around €2m and overall annual carbon savings equivalent to driving 2080 times around the globe.

In Scotland, heat pumps have the potential to save Scottish businesses £250 million a year – enough to employ almost 10,000 people at the country’s average salary.”

Neatpumps can reach an efficiency of 7, which means that for one unit of electricity, 4 units of heat and 3 units of cooling are generated. Furthermore Neatpumps reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 68 % compared to gas boilers or even 87% by the year 2035, when the national grid becomes less carbon intensive.

In 2007, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said “ammonia heatpumps were promising but impossible above 70⁰C”. Four years later the 13 MW Neatpump using zero carbon ammonia and heating up to 90⁰C was commissioned in Norway.

The installation became a leading example in the sustainable energy won great acclaim from the industry, receiving at last, the International Energy Agency’s prestigious Rittinger Medal in Toronto last year.

Pearson believes their innovation has a strong chance of winning, “We have proven the Neatpump is financially viable and provides carbon reductions without local emissions from combustion. Yet consumer acceptability is still a market barrier in the UK.

In order to fund the capital required for the solution, Star Renewable Energy aims to establish an Energy Supply Company (ESCO) and it is in this, the company seeks partners and investors.

The business model is based on heat sale to the consumer, removing the initial capital investment burden and offering saving from day one. A typical £1m project would yield £250k/a for 20 years making this business opportunity a solid investment.”

Truong Duy