Star’s Neatpump in-line for £20,000 prize

UK: Star Renewable Energy’s Neatpump industrial heat pump has been shortlisted for a £20,000 Cleantech Award.

Cleantech Innovate Scotland has lined up a collection of the best commercial green technology innovations produced in Scotland. Twenty five finalists will compete for the coveted prize on a showcase that will be held in Glasgow on 4 June 2015 in partnership with Zero Waste Scotland.

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 Neatpump was deployed in a district heating system, drawing energy from a local fjord to serve the 65,000 inhabitants and businesses of the Norwegian city of Drammen, Norway.

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

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

Neatpumps boasts an efficiency of 7, producing four units of heat and three units of cooling for one unit of electricity, something seen as impossible just a few years ago. In 2007, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said “ammonia heat pumps were promising, but impossible above 70⁰C.” Four years later, the 13MW Neatpump using zero carbon ammonia and heating up to 90⁰C was commissioned in Norway.

The installation became a leading example in sustainable energy and won great acclaim from the industry, receiving 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 that 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 that 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/annum for 20 years, making this business opportunity a solid investment.”