Heating and hot water for buildings make up 40% of energy use and 20% of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK.[1]
UK government has committed to 12% renewable heat by 2020, part of a long-term objective to decarbonise our economy.[2]
Currently just 5.64% of heat is supplied from renewable sources, so there is work to be done to achieve our 2020 target.
Heat accounts for 45% of total primary energy demand in Ireland and 33% of CO2 emissions.[3]
Ireland’s 2020 target for renewable heat is 12%, and with only 6.8% of heat currently sourced from renewable energy,[4] the Irish government is launching the Support Scheme for Renewable Heat,[5] which will provide financial support to generators of renewable heat, initially targeting biomass, biogas and heat pumps.
Industrial
Large scale industrial plants looking to save money and reduce CO2 emissions.
Council / RSL / developer
Councils, social landlords and property developers looking for community-scale low carbon affordable heating solutions.
Energy utilities
Energy utilities looking to diversify and make your assets more profitable.
Most widely employed direct combustion renewable heat technology, produced from recently living biological materials, wood being most common. Operates at all scales from individual buildings to utility-scale.
Bacterial decomposition of organic matter to produce biogas for generation of heat and electricity, or direct injection to the National Gas Grid. Widely used on farms using maize, silage and slurry. Also used by distilleries and food producers for cleaning and/or use of waste by-products.
Air, water or ground-source heat pumps circulate a refrigerant through the source, raise the temperature through pressurisation, and release the heat through condensation. Can be employed at various scales, and suited to low temperature use.
Traditional incineration produces heat and/or electricity by direct combustion of organic waste. Advanced conversion technologies, e.g. gasification and pyrolysis (non-direct combustion) enable higher energy outputs. Mostly employed at utility scale.
Generate heat from a central location, using various heat sources, distribute via a network of pre-insulated underground pipework and transfer to buildings via heat exchangers. Widely used in continental Europe from small to city-scale.
Deep geothermal energy can be extracted via boreholes in areas where the Earth’s crust is thin or where there are rocks heated by naturally occurring radioactive decay, it provides heat at temperatures which can be used in district heating networks and to produce electricity. Geothermal energy can be also extracted from relatively shallow warm aquifers and mine workings at lower temperatures.
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