SMEs are increasingly looking to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels, to cut energy bills and emissions. Cornwall New Energy is hosting a series of workshops to assist with this transition.

On the 16 January CNE hosted its second seminar in this series: ground source heat pumps (GSHP). The seminar began with a presentation from George Gillow of Kensa Heat Pumps. Based in Cornwall and Devon, Kensa is the UK's only GSHP manufacturer and has over 5000 heat pumps in use. He outlined the benefits of Shared Ground Loop Arrays (SGLAs) compared to traditional district heating. SGLAs are a form of ultra-low temperature heat networks connecting small ground source heat pumps inside each dwelling, offering a scalable and flexible solution which mimics a traditional gas framework.

This was followed by a presentation from Neil Farrington from Community Energy Plus, outlining the finance options for low carbon heat networks, as well as the associated challenges. A mixed ownership of these networks offers a new model to facilitate a fair deal for all parties:

1. Costs of the heat distribution system are met by the house builder
2. Costs of the heat pump unit in each dwelling are met by the owner/housing provider or owned by a community energy entity whilst running costs are met but the occupier.
3. Costs of the ground loop array are met by a community energy organisation in return RHI revenues and potentially a low cost annual service charge

This event provided a great opportunity for SMEs interested in GSHPs to understand the benefits and challenges associated with this type of technology as well as provide them with effectivetools to enable the potential installation, such shared finance models.

George Gillow of Kensa Heat Pumps commented:

‘Following on from the seminar you organised last month we have now had inquiries for three projects wanting estimates and information on Ground Sources heating systems.

Thank you again for organizing the event and I hope we can do it again in the future.’

Interested in finding out more about low carbon and renewable technologies?

CNE is hosting a series of workshops, free to SMEs registered on the CNE project