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Bristol project awarded Europe’s ‘Heat Pump City of the Year’
19/10/2022
The Castle Park Water Source Heat Pump (WSHP) project in Bristol, UK, has been named as the winner of the ‘Heat Pump City of the Year’ award at a recent awards ceremony.
The Castle Park energy centre in Bristol won the accolade at the 2022 European Heat Pump Association Awards held earlier this month. The project, a partnership between Bristol City Council, Vital Energi and Goram Homes, is believed to be the largest single water source heat pump (WSHP) installation in the UK. The initiative aims to demonstrate that large-scale heat pumps can be plugged into existing city-wide schemes.
The 3 MW water source heat pump takes water from the nearby floating harbour. The water is then filtered to prevent debris from entering the system and is passed through the water source heat pump where the latent heat reacts with ammonia and creates low pressure vapour which can be compressed to a high pressure vapour of around 110°C. Heat from the water source heat pump is directed into a thermal store which then feeds into the Bristol Heat Network, providing low carbon heat and hot water for approximately 1,000 homes and businesses.
Commenting on the award, Scott Lutton, Vital Energi’s Operations Director – North & Scotland, said: ‘We’d like to congratulate Bristol City Council and Goram Homes for their fantastic achievement. This project demonstrates that WSHPs can plug into existing networks and opens up the possibility of harnessing the gigawatts of ambient heat in the UK’s rivers, which will play a large part in meeting our net zero targets.’
In 2018, Bristol City Council declared a climate emergency and pledged to make the city carbon neutral by 2030. Heating and hot water accounts for 40% of energy-related CO2 emissions worldwide, and 19% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions come from heating homes and workspaces. Water source heat pumps are estimated to reduce the amount of energy needed to heat a building by 80%.
