Networked heat pumps can achieve mass decarbonisation

Following yesterday’s report from the CCC on the poor progress the UK is making towards net zero, Kensa is encouraging key stakeholders to redirect their efforts to developing networked heat pump solutions, which it describes as the lowest cost pathway to decarbonising heat.

Rather than replacing gas boilers with ground source heat pumps on a house-by-house basis, Kensa is urging key stakeholders to shift their focus to street-by-street installations of networked heat pumps on ambient temperature loops that utilise the natural heat in the ground combined with waste heat. This, says the company, will facilitate the widespread roll-out of the technology.

It further claims that by installing the underground infrastructure required for ground source heat pumps a whole street at a time in advance of connecting individual properties, entire communities would be able to switch to renewable heating when they are ready to transition. This would happen in a way that mimics the original roll-out of the gas grid.

Kensa says that with the right legislative changes and funding structure, the model would be self-sustaining and eventually subsidy-free whilst facilitating the low carbon transition.

A street-by-street approach could also be scaled up to town and city level, which Kensa says could be a ‘game changer’.

The company is currently delivering a demonstrator project based on this Networked Heat Pump model in Cornwall – Heat the Streets, Stithians.

Suggested legislative changes include: a rebalancing of the current disproportionate levies on electricity; linking stamp duty and council tax to carbon emissions; allowing the access fee to be collected via the electricity bill, and giving utility rights to deploy infrastructure with reduced red tape.

CEO Dr Matthew Trewhella says: “It is one thing to make low-carbon heating technologies like ground source heat pumps available, but it is entirely a different matter to achieve their installation in homes and their adoption for use on a mass scale.

“Kensa is working to break down the perceived barriers to the widescale electrification of heat and showcase to policymakers and the public that Networked Heat Pumps can achieve mass decarbonisation goals at scale for the lowest economic and societal cost.”