Kensa wins Lighthouse Heat Pump Award

Kensa Utilities has announced that its project, ‘Heat the Streets’, has won this year’s Lighthouse Heat Pump Award at the European Heat Pump Association’s highly esteemed 2023 Heat Pump Awards.

The Heat Pump Awards recognises the most outstanding heat pump projects and attracts entrants from across Europe. The Lighthouse Heat Pump category highlights unique heat pump projects pioneering problem-solving with high levels of creativity.

Winning this award shines a light on how large-scale, street-by-street rollout of ground source heat pumps can be achieved using a networked heat pump solution. ‘Heat the Streets’ decarbonised residential heating in new and existing homes across Cornwall by connecting Kensa’s highly efficient ground source heat pumps to shared ground borehole arrays drilled into the roads – a UK first.

Lisa Treseder, Director of Business Development, collected the award at the ceremony in Brussels. She says, “We are delighted to receive this prestigious award and for ‘Heat the Streets’ to receive such amazing recognition. This achievement is a testament to the incredible innovation within Kensa, and we are proud to demonstrate European-wide leadership in our approaches to decarbonise heat.”

Now installed, the visually unobtrusive boreholes are providing homes with a reliable heat source all year round that will last over 100 years. The ground source heat pumps provide 100% of each property’s heating and hot water needs, meaning that residents no longer use carbon-intensive oil or LPG fossil fuels.

The project has successfully demonstrated the scalability and viability of ground source heat pumps connected to in-road infrastructure as a cost-effective and creative solution for rapidly reducing carbon emissions.

Wouter Thijssen, Managing Director of Kensa Utilities, comments, “Heating and cooling is the biggest source of emissions across Europe, and heat pumps are naturally in pole position to help address this issue. Especially for streets not quite dense enough for district heating, but too dense for individual heat pumps, our ‘Heat the Streets’ project shows a pathway to replicate the gas arrangements people living in these streets are familiar with.

“In the UK this accounts for around 50% of homes (terraced homes and flats), and a similar share is true for other European countries. What we’ve demonstrated in Cornwall could be the blueprint for flats and terraced-like housing across Europe, and we’re really pleased this is recognised through this award.”