One of the UK’s biggest clean heat developers is making a £150 investment to reap sales from homebuilders, as it assists them meet next year’s Future Homes Standard.
Long delayed until next year’s implementation, the new housebuilding norms are designed to tighten up on Britain’s notoriously energy-inefficient homes, including new dwellings delivered in too small quantities by what some observers see as politically well connected volume home builders.
Rendesco’s solution lifts natural clean heat up from boreholes, pumping it into individual new homes or through networks. Signing a joint venture with Last Mile Infrastructure, one of the UK’s largest independent network owners, is its route to success.
As dwellings and the builders who sell them benefit from cheap heat, the only noticeable difference for occupying householders is a ground source heat pump replacing a carbon-emitting gas boiler.
The ground source of cheap, clean energy can involve either a large central heat pump heating several homes in a single development, or smaller devices fitted to individual homes.
Cheltenham-based Rendesco says its solutions magnify energy efficiencies at scale, typically saving 18 tonnes of CO2 per property compared to gas boilers, and three tonnes of CO2 compared to an air-source heat pump.
The supplier says its £150 million target is Britain’s most ambitious yet from a commercial concern, and designed to assist the government’s goal of 600,000 heat pumps operating by 2028, as set out two years ago in its Heat and Buildings Strategy.
Industry observers see that target as woefully compromised by the perceived high cost of installing and running heat pumps, and a serious lack of technicians to instal them.
A meagre 35,000 devices were installed in 2020, as Covid lockdowns bit.
Rendesco claims it already heats 3,000 UK dwellings, with 80 more in construction.
Its new build home solutions are owned by Last Mile Heat, enabling housebuilders – or so the partners claim – to install ground source heat in their constructions at a considerably lower cost than through mainstream channels.
The approach also reduces the installation cost for households and significantly improves the energy efficiency of homes, saving money on energy bills.
The clean heat developer provides heat to its portfolio of more than 3,000 homes across 70 UK networks, and has projects to provide low-carbon heat to over 800 more new build homes.
Last Mile Heat, a joint venture between Rendesco and Last Mile Infrastructure, aims to provide ground source heat infrastructure to residential and commercial property developers across the UK, making clean heat far more accessible.
Around 300,000 new homes are intended by Whitehall for construction each year, as ministers struggle to combat Britain’s growing crisis over homelessness.
Rendesco founder & CEO Alastair Murray commented: “In this funding commitment we are proud to be setting the standard for UK private sector investment in clean heat networks.
“Our pipeline demonstrates the fantastic progress with our Last Mile Heat joint venture and means we can offer our clean heat solutions to even more housebuilders. The UK’s clean heat market needs greater innovation – and quickly – if we are to effectively decarbonise the country’s homes and buildings.
For Last Mile, CEO Mike Pearce responded: “As an already established and trusted utility infrastructure partner of housebuilders across Great Britain, we are delighted that Last Mile Heat has put us at the forefront of providing clean heat solutions to the next generation of Britain’s homes.
“The UK ground source heat connections market is growing rapidly with ground source heat being a highly sustainable and affordable solution for new build projects, for developers and residents alike.”
It is good to learn that Rendesco is focusing on ground source heat pumps (GSHP) which are more efficient than air source (ASHP), especially in winter when ASHP are less efficient and may need a mains electric heater back up in very cold weather.