TECNALIA wins award for its solution to decarbonise the energy system

TECNALIA wins award in Europe for its solution to decarbonise the energy system of buildings

• The European Heat Pump Association has rewarded the pilot project led by the research and technological development centre with one of its prestigious awards for its contribution to sustainable heating/air conditioning
• It is an innovative and efficient solution for retrofitting, based on cascade heat pumps, and is currently being used in a residential building in Pasaia (Gipuzkoa)

Brussels, 26 September 2024. The TECNALIA research and technological development centre has been awarded the prestigious Heat Pump Award for the innovative solution it has developed to decarbonise the energy system of buildings, which is currently being used in a residential building in Pasaia (Gipuzkoa). These awards, now in their 14th year, are presented by the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA) with the aim of recognising the most innovative and energy-efficient heat pump projects and highlighting their contribution to sustainable heating/air conditioning.

The awards ceremony took place last night in Brussels, where Irantzu Urkola, Project Coordinator and Project Manager at TECNALIA, together with Patricia Val, General Manager of Alokabide, collected this award in the DecarBuilding Award category. She said that “this award recognises the work carried out based on collaboration, which pursues a triple objective of energy efficiency, lower cost for residents and improvement of the environmental impact of the building, which is key in the communities of the future”.

The award-winning solution is based on cascade heat pumps, which are hybridised with locally produced renewable energy, mainly solar. Heat for heating and DHW services is generated in two levels and a demonstration was carried out in a residential building in Pasaia. It is an innovative and efficient solution for the building energy system retrofitting sector, as it maximises self-sufficiency and energy savings while reducing environmental impact.

This solution aims to solve the current problems faced by buildings, which are responsible for 40% of energy demand and 36% of CO₂ emissions in Europe, where a large part of this demand is due to heating, cooling and hot water systems.

Pioneering building in Europe

The solution is currently being developed in a multifamily home managed by Alokabide, the Basque Government’s public rental management body, in coordination with other agents involved in housing policy, where two central heat pumps have been installed to pre-heat the water stored in a tank. This accumulation makes it possible to uncouple central generation from individual household consumption, so the central heat pumps are used at the times of the day when their efficiency is highest, thus improving the efficiency of the system.

The preheated water is then distributed throughout the building, to each home, at a constant, low temperature of around 20 °C, which minimises heat loss in distribution, offering a great advantage compared to centralised systems where a lot of energy is lost in this part of the installation.

In each home, to finish heating the water to reach the right temperature, there is an individual heat pump that takes the heat from the water distribution and raises it to the temperature of use, so it adapts perfectly to the specific demands of each user, and with optimal performance due to the constant temperature of the distribution. A solar photovoltaic system has also been installed on the rooftop together with a battery, which generates a significant part of the electricity consumed by the system and the building in a renewable way. And all this has been accompanied by advanced control to improve the overall performance of the installation. With this system, the self-sufficiency of the building is maximised, residents save money on their energy bills, and the environmental impact is reduced.

This solution makes it possible to use a considerable amount of renewable energy. The solution is also coupled with virtually no planning, implementation and operation processes, which ensures a quality installation and reduces the effort required and costs of the renovation project.

As well as TECNALIA, other organisations that have collaborated on the project, called HAPPENING, include Accademia Europea di Bolzano (EURAC), Tecnozenith, Innova SRL, AEE - Institut für nachhaltige technologien, GWS, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, RINA Consulting S.p.A, Green Building Council-España, National Association of Energy Services Companies (ANESE), CARTIF and ALOKABIDE.

This video shows how the pump system works in the Pasaia building