Delivering a large-scale residential ambient heat network for South Wales

Project background

Parc Eirin  - a development of 225 homes by Pobl and Kensa Contracting, Tirion Homes, Sero and Morganstone, supported by £7m funding from the Welsh Government’s Innovative Housing Programme - had the ambition to incorporate low carbon heating and cooling solutions into this high-quality residential project. 

The goal was to leave a clean, low-carbon legacy for South Wales.  

The homes combine a mix of renewable energy technologies (including solar panels, smart hot water tanks, ground source heat pumps, battery storage, smart energy management systems and three-phase car charging) to enable them to minimise energy use.

It is the first large-scale development of affordable, high quality, low carbon homes of this kind in the UK and required a collaborative approach from all the expert consultancies involved to achieve its aims.  

How we got involved

Genius Energy Lab was brought on board to support the technical design aspects of the project, from initial geology reports to a full ground source heat pump borehole loop design that incorporated multiple shared arrays across what would be referred to as a fifth-generation heat network. We pride ourselves on becoming part of the project team, on hand to support and collaborate with all stakeholders to deliver the best outcome for the project.

A crucial aspect of a large-scale project is a strong feasibility study. It’s here that we can understand the geology and local ground conditions we’re dealing with. But also gauge what the project is trying to achieve, potential heating and cooling ambitions, the nature of the heat network required and if GSHP is going to suit. 

Our technical specialists gather information on the project to determine how appropriate ground source heat pump technology is for your needs, application and location, concluding in an outline report on the feasibility of the Ground Source Heat Pump System installation.

We delivered:

Emissions savings forecast at 71.2 tCO2/yr

10,626m total borehole depth combined

109 boreholes in total

Emissions savings forecast at 71.2 tCO2/yr • 10,626m total borehole depth combined • 109 boreholes in total •

Genius Energy Lab’s thoughts on the project:

This project is an inspirational demonstration of sustainable homes that deliver improved social value through renewable energy solutions to drive down bills and carbon emissions. 

The genius of the site is that it can generate its own energy for consumption on-site and import from the grid can be limited to times when it is cheaper and from predominantly renewable sources, reducing strain on the national grid.”

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