Heat Pumps Today

December | January 2022 UK’s First Large-Scale Water Source Heat Pump Project O cially Opens The award-winning Queens Quay Heat Pump Energy Centre is providing low-carbon heating to the first phases of the £250m Clydebank-based development and members of West Dunbartonshire Council, Vital Energi and Star Renewables recently gathered to celebrate the achievement at an ocial opening. The opening is a particularly timely showcase of Scottish innovation as world leaders are set to gather in Glasgow for the COP26 United Nations Conference. The £20m project, which was delivered by Vital Energi on behalf of West Dunbartonshire Council will provide heating and hot water to the 23-hectare Queens Quay development which includes plans for 1,200 homes, businesses and public buildings. The initial phase connects Aurora House, the Titan Enterprise Centre, Clydebank Leisure Centre and care home, Queens Quay House. At full build out the project will deliver circa 5,705 tonnes of CO 2 reduction per year due to grid decarbonisation. Scott Lutton, Vital Energi’s Operations Director – North & Scotland said, “With COP26 fast approaching it is timely that we showcase the local authorities who have successfully delivered initiatives to meet their carbon targets and are an inspiration to others. West Dunbartonshire Council have shown that it is possible to, not only deliver large carbon reduction by harnessing renewable technology, but that this heat can be delivered at a more aordable price. The energy centre houses two 2.65MW water source heat pumps which extract water from the River Clyde at a rate of 125 litres per second and use the latent heat to produce heating and hot water for the development via a 5km district heating network. Councillor Iain McLaren, Convener of Infrastructure, Regeneration and Economic Development, said: “I am extremely proud to ocially open the West Dunbartonshire Energy Centre. This ambitious project has been many years in the making and it’s a pleasure to see the system up and running, providing low-carbon heat energy to so many buildings already, and with the capability of expansion throughout Clydebank. “As the world turned its eyes to the West of Scotland for COP26, and we work to agree action to try and halt the climate emergency, we are determined to do our part. This system, alongside a number of other steps taken by the Council, will help us achieve our goal to be net zero by 2045 and lead the way in tackling the climate emergency.” The network was designed to accommodate further growth, with the potential to expand beyond Queens Quay over several phases. The network has been future-proofed, and pipework has been installed to supply the forthcoming Health Centre, West College Scotland, the first 140 flats and retail units currently on site, all other homes planned for the site as well as Clydebank Library and Clydebank Town Hall. UK manufacturers voice concerns over ‘dumping’ of cheap foreign heat pumps into UK Mike Foster, Chief Executive of the Energy and Utilities Alliance (EUA), the industry body that represents the UK’s heating industry, says his members are concerned that quotas will simply suck in cheap foreign imports risking the very policy they are meant to support. British industry is increasingly concerned that quotas for heat pump sales, rumoured to be in the Government’s long- awaited Heat and Buildings Strategy, will lead to a loss of British jobs and an influx of cheap foreign imports being dumped on UK onsumers. In what has been described as ‘Soviet-style production planning’ that could lead to Lada-quality heat pumps, the Heat and Building Strategy – which could be unveiled as early as this week – is set to include a legal obligation called ‘The Market Mechanism’, backed up by penalties, if UK boiler manufacturers fail to sell a Whitehall-set target number of heat pumps. Mike says; “Anecdotally, we hear of Chinese heat pump manufacturers approaching UK firms with a view to selling cheap appliances for UK firms to badge and meet the Whitehall-imposed production quota. “Our members, who are facing a financial penalty if they don’t supply the market with enough heat pumps to satisfy the Whitehall bureaucrats, may end up bringing these cheap imports into the UK or paying a fine if they don’t. It is the most un-Conservative industrial policy I have ever seen. “We will see innovative and successful British industry penalised because Whitehall ocials are so desperate to reach a target for heat pump sales, they fail to see the bigger picture. Ministers are complicit in this. The pain will be felt in places like Preston, Hull, Derbyshire and Worcester. “The route to Net Zero and low carbon homes is not Soviet-style production planning that attempts to force products into a market regardless of consumer demand. We risk the heat pump version of the old Lada factories producing lines and lines of poor-quality cars that nobody wants. “Our members want to help the government and will be meeting to agree more practical ways to sell a full range of low carbon technologies, based on a solid understanding of industry. “Centrally planned production targets are better suited to a Soviet regime, not a government that believes in the free market. Perhaps it’s time for Ministers to take charge of this policy and not their ocials. The heating industry is happy to meet them at any time to avoid a catastrophic mistake of Lada-esque proportions.” For more information on renewable heating and to see the EUA’s latest report, Too Close to Home, visit: https://eua.org.uk/too-close-to-home/ 06 N E W S