South East London Community Energy (Selce) has launched the appeal for £70,000 to buy a 60kW heat pump for Charlton Park Academy.
The school – a special academy for students with complex, low incidence special educational needs in Greenwich – will use the electricity generated to power its 24-hour hydrotherapy pool — a vital facility for pupils with profound physical and learning disabilities.
The heat pump will be largely powered by the school’s existing on-site solar PV (around 150 kWp in total, with 50 kWp installed by Selce in 2016 and a further 100 kWp installed by the school in 2020).
Selce says it will be one the first heat pumps in the UK, to be financed by community energy, and the first community-owned heat pump project in the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It also marks the first phase of the school’s 10-year roadmap to fully electrify its 1.5 MW gas heating system.
“Based on our financial model,” adds Selce, “the heat pump is forecast to save the school around £154,299 in gas bills over its operating life and to avoid approximately 313.4 tonnes of CO₂e over 20 years.”
The share offer is forecast to return 4% per year to investors, it says.
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Selce is working with the school because it runs the pool 24 hours a day, every day of the year – and while most school swimming pools sit at around 28C, Charlton Park’s runs at 33-35C, because its pupils cannot regulate their body heat in cooler water. This temperate difference requires twice as much gas as a regular school pool.
Any excess capacity will feed the school’s other hot water needs, adds Selce. “This is a targeted intervention in one of London’s most climate-vulnerable boroughs, at one of its most vulnerable buildings,” it said.
Selce says the share offer comes in the context of problems around decarbonising heat.
“Gas boilers account for around 25% of Greenwich’s CO₂ emissions,” it said, “and heat is the hardest and most-underserved sector for the UK to decarbonise. There are currently fewer than five community energy projects ackling low carbon heat in London, and none in the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
“While the UK has more than 266 MW of community-owned solar, there are almost no community energy heat-pump projects of comparable scale. This project is intended as a working example to change that.
“With the school’s consent, we will use the project’s consumption meter and performance data as a research and case- study resource for the community energy and renewable-heat sector – to help others build similar projects, and to feed into the school’s wider 10 year decarbonisation roadmap.”
For the school itself, says Selce, every penny saved on energy bills “goes back into educating some of the most vulnerable young people in our community – increasing the resources available for therapies, enrichment activities and learning support.”
