World News

Industry news and insights from Europe and around the World

UK News

Latest news and developments in the United Kingdom

Products

Keep up-to-date with the latest new products and technology

Features

General articles, applications and industry analysis

Mitsubishi heat pumps in remote island project

Inis Mór is one of the heat pump project locations

EUROPE: Mitsubishi Electric R&D Centre Europe BV has started a demand response demonstration project to evaluate the effectiveness of heat pumps in providing energy independence for remote islands.

The experiment will see Mitsubishi Electric heat pumps deployed on the Aran Islands in the North Atlantic off the west coast of Ireland, and San Pietro Island, which is off the south western coast of Sardinia.

Part of the four-year REACT project, which is co-funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 programme, the experiments are being carried out on 24 houses and community buildings on Inis Mór, the largest of the three Aran islands, and in 30 dwellings and community buildings on San Pietro.

Remote islands suffer from several barriers in the traditional electrical grid model. This affects the island’s energy security and increases energy costs that are up to 400% higher than on the mainland.

The REACT islands are expected to make maximum use of renewable energy to achieve an increased level of energy independence.

Part of Innovation Action, the REACT project involves 22 partners in total including companies and academic institutions from 11 EU countries. The project will demonstrate a community-centric approach to energy management for remote islands using distributed renewable energy generation and storage technologies with demand-response to balance power supply and demand. 

The project aims to achieve energy savings of 10%, a 60% reduction in greenhouse gases, and a 50% increase in the use of renewable energy.

Mitsubishi Electric R&D Centre Europe comprises two entities: one located in Rennes, France and the other in Livingston, UK.

Latest News

14th May 2025

GBV ball valves expand Sanhua SS range

SPAIN: Sanhua has expanded its stainless steel valve range with new GBV ball valves for commercial air conditioning, freezing, deep-freezing applications and other refrigeration systems.
14th May 2025

Bitzer expands oil cooler capacities

GERMANY: Bitzer’s new OWD series of water cooled oil coolers extends the capacity of its existing OW range and improves heat exchange efficiency.
14th May 2025

Chillventa 2026 to be 15% larger

GERMANY: The organiser of Chillventa, the European air conditioning, refrigeration and heat pump exhibition, has announced an expansion of the event in 2026 with the addition of a further hall.
14th May 2025

Samsung targets applied HVAC and data centres

SOUTH KOREA: Growing demand for data centre cooling solutions and a desire to expand its applied HVAC portfolio is said to be behind Samsung’s €1.5bn purchase of the FläktGroup. 
14th May 2025

Samsung to buy FläktGroup for €1.5bn

GERMANY: Korean manufacturer Samsung Electronics is set to acquire all the shares of FläktGroup from investment company Triton for €1.5bn.
13th May 2025

CO2/water brazed plate heat exchanger

DENMARK: A CO2/water brazed plate heat exchanger designed specifically for CO2 transcritical systems is the latest introduction from Danfoss.