Case Studies
Renewable energy options
Balanced Energy Network project with London South Bank University for InnovateUK
The team has delivered an InnovateUK award project for a strategy for a Balanced Energy Network for the London South Bank University campus, in association with London South Bank University.
Developing scalable solutions to networks is critical to meeting heat demand, and to reaching the UK’s 2050 carbon reduction targets. Developing heat network infrastructure is both a technical and social challenge due to the high infrastructure costs, and the diverse actors and supply chains involved.
Balanced Energy Networks are designed to provide a more cost effective, flexible, and scalable alternative to conventional district heating network technology. Balanced Energy Networks transfer warmth via a piping circuit between buildings at near ground temperature and extract it via heat pumps in each building: the internet of heat.
This radical innovation allows the integration of diverse energy systems through the recovery of low grade waste heat, delivery of simultaneous heating and cooling, links to heat storage in boreholes and provides lower installation costs by making use of existing infrastructure, none of which are possible with conventional high temperature heat networks.
When buildings require cooling then heat can also released into the district circuit and this benefits those buildings that need heating. This results in a flexible heat sharing network that is to the advantage of both those releasing heat and those extracting heat.Balanced Energy Networks Demonstration at LSBU
This proposal outlined the research packages through which this project demonstrated that Balanced Energy Networks represent a scalable and adaptable answer to meeting the UK’s growing demand for efficient space and hot water heating and developed the district energy management systems necessary for successful implementation.
The Intranet of Heat
This new heat infrastructure is the birth of an "Intranet of Heat". The Intranet of Heat enables the exchange of information about sources and needs of heat - and cooling - and then allows heat exchange from those buildings with surplus heat to those in need of heat.
