Trane heat pumps land savings at Schipol Airport

NETHERLANDS: Trane heat pumps are combined with thermal energy storage (TES) systems in commercial office buildings located at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.

New buildings at the airport are equipped with TES, and existing buildings are transitioning away from gas, leading to significant reductions in CO2 emissions.

A collective TES was designed for the Schiphol Building (SHG), Outlook 1 and 2, and Avioport, a group of commercial office buildings located in the airport’s central business district.

This required connecting heat pumps and dry coolers to the three buildings via underground pipes, with each building having its own heat pump station. A solution was needed for two nearby buildings without their own TES. The Outlook office building still relied on gas-fired boilers and chillers for heating and cooling

In preparation for the central TES project, four Trane City RTSF heat pumps were installed in the Schiphol building a few years ago, initially operating with the old sources.

For The Outlook’s heat pump system, five Trane City RTSF 110 heat pumps with refrigerant R1234ze were installed. 

In addition to the five Trane RTSF units, one Trane Exergy P30 industrial heat pump was also installed in the parking basement.

With some installations in The Outlook buildings needing 70°C water, the small Trane Exergy to boost the water from the RTSFs to 70°C where needed.

The new sustainable thermal system of The Outlook can simultaneously provide heating and cooling in different parts of the building if desired. The old chillers in the parking basement were replaced by heat pumps, with existing gas boilers remaining on standby to assist if needed.

Paul Varekamp, project leader at technical service provider Equans, noted: “If you consider weather extremes when selecting a thermal energy storage system, you get an unnecessarily large and expensive system. How often does it get below -10°C in the Netherlands? The heat pumps will likely always meet the heat demand.”

Results

At the end of January 2025, in the middle of winter, The Outlook office building switched to the renewed source system and its own heat pump solution.

With the collective TES for three buildings, Schiphol estimates to save approximately 625,000m³ of natural gas per year. The airport aims to have all of their buildings off the gas grid by 2030, using thermal energy storage systems in new constructions and phasing out gas in existing premises.