Meet the winners of the 2023 Heat Pump Awards

ExerGo — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 09:59:14 +0000

This press release was originally released by the European Heat Pump Association.

On 28 September, the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA) hosted the 13^th edition of the Heat Pump Award, an event dedicated to honouring the most outstanding projects at the local, residential, and industrial levels. The Award Ceremony took place at the Grand Place Marriot Hotel in Brussels during EHPA’s annual Heat Pump Forum.

The Heat Pump Award, an initiative of EHPA, aims to capture the remarkable progress and relentless innovation driving the heat pump industry forward. In this edition, the 13^th, the Award received more than 40 applications from across the globe, each offering a unique perspective on how heat pumps play a vital role in our journey towards decarbonisation.

During the event, we granted recognition to winning projects in five categories: Heat Pump city of the Year, Decarbuilding – which celebrates the use of heat pumps in the building sector, Decarbindustry – use of heat pumps for more sustainable industrial practices-, Lighthouse Heat Pump – which rewards innovation and creativity, and People’s Choice – crowning the most popular heat pump project based on public votes.

We extend our gratitude to all the participants who submitted their remarkable projects, to the jury of experts that assessed the submissions and to the public that enthusiastically casted their votes to determine the People’s Choice Award winner.

The awarded projects for the 2023 edition are:

Heat Pump City of the Year Award: ‘The world’s first CO₂-based energy network’ in Sion, Switzerland, by ExerGo.

Introduced by Enrique Vilatmitjana Managing Director at Panasonic Heating & Cooling Solutions Europe, and accepted by Dr. Alberto Mian, CEO at ExerGo.

The project represents ExerGo´s efforts to pioneer the world’s first CO₂-based energy network, using CO₂ as a heat transfer fluid instead of water. The higher energy density means smaller, flexible pipes can be used. The pilot plant in Sion, Switzerland, has provided 1,200 MWh of year-round heating and cooling since March 2022, optimising energy usage among the Energypolis Campus buildings at HES-SO University of Applied Sciences.

It is a great honour for ExerGo to receive the prestigious Heat Pump City of The Year Award from the European Heat Pump Association.
This prize is an important milestone towards the recognition of our technology, the CO2 thermal network, as an efficient and ready-to-scale solution to decarbonize cities all around the world.
My deepest gratitude goes to my team, our investors and Sion pilot project partners who contributed to boost our development and commercialization.

Alberto Mian, CEO, ExerGo Tweet

Decarbuilding Award: ‘Water-Loop Heat Pump for heating systems retrofit in existing buildings‘ by INNOVA Srl.

The prize was introduced by Malgorzata Smuczynska, Regional Sales Director EAST and MD at ESBE Hydronic Systems, and accepted by Ilario Zanetti, Presales Engineer at INNOVA Srl.

This project was born under the firm belief that the global shift toward electric-based energy systems is crucial for decarbonisation, especially in existing buildings. The innovative water-loop heat pump air conditioning system employs a primary heat pump to generate water suitable for standard pipes and radiators, ensuring consistent temperatures (20-35 °C) throughout the year. Quiet

In order to decarbonise our building stock, we must equip large existing buildings with smart, clean heating and cooling technologies. Winning the DecarBuilding Award with our waterloop heat pump reinforces INNOVA’s core mission: to grow through innovation.

Ilario Zanneti, Presales Engineer, Innova Srl Tweet

Decarbindustry Award: ‘How Bosch transformed the Eisenach plant into a pioneer in energy efficiency’, by Bosch.

Introduced by Irene Egea Saiz, EU Projects Manager at EHPA, and accepted by Rudolf Marevic, Service and Portfolio Management at Bosch Sicherheitssysteme GmbH.

In this project, the Bosch Eisenach factory, formerly reliant on gas boilers and chillers, underwent a transformation to decarbonise its heating and cooling. It used compressed air waste heat recovery and a heat pump, slashing annual CO² emissions by 2,400 tons, cutting gas consumption by over 90%, and lowering energy costs by approximately 600,000 euros. The site now boasts nearly carbon-neutral heating and cooling generation.

We are honoured to have won the decarbindustry award this year. We would like to reproduce this kind of project to other locations too, #LikeABosch.

Rudolf Marevic, Service and Portfolio Management, Bosch Sicherheitssysteme GmbH Tweet

Lighthouse heat pump Award: ‘Heat the streets’, by Kensa Utilities.

Introduced by Patrick Crombez, General Manager for Heating and Renewables, EMEA, at Daikin Europe, and accepted by Lisa Treseder, Director of Business development at Kensa Utilities.

The Heat the Streets project showcased the feasibility of retrofitting ground source heat pumps to domestic properties at scale without a ‘fabric-first’ approach. It received partial funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and was conducted in rural Cornwall. The project demonstrated the potential for coordinated, mass deployment of ground source heat pumps in a networked fashion, successfully installing the world’s first in-road retrofit of a shared ground array and providing ground source heat pumps to over 100 properties, including new builds and retrofits, advancing the UK’s net-zero heating goals.

At the #HPForum, financing of heat pumps was a top priority. The focus was on selling heat services rather than commodities, which is exactly what we did on Heat the Streets. By treating the ground array infrastructure as a utility asset, we make it easier for our customers to say yes to heat pumps. Our model mimics the arrangements we already have with the gas network, making it very familiar to British households.

Lisa Treseder, Director of Business Development, Kensa Utilities Tweet

People’s Choice Award: the most popular heat pump project: ’AHT Rottenmann - Decarbonisation Project: Gas Boiler Replacement’ by Daikin Europe.

Introduced by Kaven Nourrice R&D Specialist at Frascold and accepted by Jan Logghe, Senior Manager at Daikin Europe.

AHT Rottenmann’s forward-looking Decarbonisation Project involved replacing gas boilers with a cutting-edge heat pump cascade, delivering a total heating capacity of 1,200kW. This sustainable system caters to the production facility of the plant, office building, and domestic hot water needs, aligning with the company’s commitment to eco-friendly practices.

We are exceptionally proud and thankful for the appreciation expressed by all the people who voted for our industrial heat pump project at AHT Rottenmann in Austria. Being awarded with the People Choice’s award shows our solutions to decarbonise the industry resonate with a wide audience, for which we are very grateful.

Jan Logghe, Senior Manager, Daikin Europe Tweet

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Using CO₂ to heat and cool urban areas

Alberto Mian — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 05:49:14 +0000

ExerGo has developed an efficient heating and cooling network solution. Using CO₂ as the heat transfer fluid (to both heat and cool), the company boasts an 85% reduction in energy consumption compared to fossil-fuel-based solutions – with zero CO₂ emissions.

“Projections show that by 2050, around two-thirds of the population of Europe will live in urban environments,” explains Alberto Mian, CEO of this Energypolis spin-off. “This opens the door to numerous synergies in dealing with the increased concentration in energy demand and ever more ambitious climate goals.” The CO₂ network concept developed by ExerGo thus targets towns and ci-ties, where it enables exchanges of waste heat between buildings and provides an efficient urban heating and cooling network. In this way, the residual heat from data centres, supermarkets and office buildings can be reco-vered and used to supply domestic hot water and hea-ting to apartments for example.

USING DISCHARGES FROM INDUSTRY

Existing district heating and cooling networks use water in a closed circuit as the heat transfer fluid. ExerGo has replaced the water with R-744 CO₂. This fluid, which is commonplace in commercial and industrial refrigeration, has an exceptional energy density. “We use R-744 not just as a coolant but also to transport low-tempera-ture heat from the environment – such as lakes, rivers and underground – and recover it through decentralised heat pumps.” This is a typical application for CO₂ in industry (CCU), using a system that injects and stores it in the network rather than discharging it into the atmosphere.

ExerGo is targeting two customer profiles: utilities (through the installation of large-scale systems) and real estate developers planning on building ecodistricts. The company is initially focusing its strategy on deploying heating and cooling services, but in the longer term plans to extend the network to include the production and distribution of electricity with gas micro-CHP units using fuel cells for CO₂ capture. To publicise its technology far and wide, ExerGo is showcasing it in Switzerland and around Europe through collaborations with partners including – in Switzerland – the Geneva utilities company (SIG) and the energy company OIKEN. The system is currently installed in Sion, where it connects three buildings on the Energypolis Campus. ExerGo is being supported by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy and The Ark Foundation.

This article was originally published in CleanTechAlps’s Special Report (November 2022)

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Meet the winners of the 2023 Heat Pump Awards

Using CO₂ to heat and cool urban areas

USING DISCHARGES FROM INDUSTRY