Sunamp News Update

The recent announcement that Iceland Foods has released a bespoke electric delivery vehicle using our new cold storage technology for a government funded trial conjured up comparisons with Sunamp and US technology giant Tesla in the press, and not for the first time. 


Sunamp is the lead partner in the consortium behind a trial which aims to transform
chilled or frozen food fleets by using ‘thermal store’ technology to minimise the battery power used keeping food deliveries fresh.

Together with Yorkshire-based truck manufacturer Paneltex, Scottish firm Route Monkey
which develops fleet optimisation software and LowCVP, a public-private, not-for- profit
partnership, Sunamp was successful in securing £1.15 million Integrated Delivery
Programme 12 (IDP12) research funding in March 2016.

The partnership’s combined technology has the potential to be a game-changer and could
have far-reaching applications in refrigerated vehicles and beyond. Sunamp is inverting its
Heat Batteries, which are conventionally used in transport heating and air conditioning, to
deliver a new cold storage technology capable of offering a better power to weight ratio
than existing alternatives, as well as greater efficiency than Li-Ion batteries. This should lead to increased vehicle payload as a result of reining back on the traction battery pack.

Paneltex has modified one of its all-electric BPV trucks on a 5.5t Isuzu chassis for the project. Route Monkey’s EVOS software will be used to optimise the EV range by calculating factors such as route topography and scheduling deliveries of heavier loads at the beginning of the day. LowCVP is involved in the dissemination of project results

The £38 million EV initiative is funded by OLEV (Office for Low Emission Vehicles) and
Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency.

        

In a project that originated from the challenge of solving grid constraint in Orkney, we are now in discussions with Bristol City Council to move surplus heat from waste treatment facilities by barge to be used in the city’s district heating scheme.


When we realised it could be possible to help unleash the potential of island renewables by
moving excess heat energy from Orkney to Aberdeen by ferry, it opened up new ways of
tackling fuel poverty and reducing waste that can be replicated worldwide.

Once funding is secured, the Bristol scheme will see heat from waste processes in
Avonmouth stored in Sunamp Heat Batteries and transported by container using the city’s canal system, each carting 2MWh of heat storage in its phase change technology.

If the trial is successful, there is worldwide potential to transport heat from industrial
sources in containers using existing infrastructure such as canal networks.

     

Scottish Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse joined us recently at an event held with Castle Rock Edinvar Housing Association to mark the successful completion of Phase 2 of a unique project that is already cutting fuel costs for over 2000 residents across Edinburgh and the Lothians.


With £3.2M funding from Scottish Government’s Local Energy Challenge Fund (LECF), the EastHeat project to install solar panels and trial heat storage batteries in housing association properties was completed on time and within budget, creating employment for up to 70 people.

It is estimated that gas and electricity fuel costs will be cut by at least £120,000 per year
across the project, and homes fitted with Sunamp’s heat storage batteries will benefit from up to £300 savings on hot water and heating bills each year.

Sunamp Heat Batteries efficiently store heat energy using low-cost, off-peak electricity, or
‘free’ electricity from Solar PV. They release the heat when needed to provide hot water or home heating, all without the need for an immersion heater or hot water tank, and provide a unique and valuable bridge between legacy heating systems using gas boilers and zero-carbon heat from solar and heat pumps. The non-toxic heat batteries use a novel phase-change material developed with the University of Edinburgh to store three to four times more heat than hot water tanks of the same size.

On average the solar PV generates 2500 kWh per year, of which about 1000 kWh directly
reduces electricity bills by around £150 per home per year. The SunampPV heat battery,
installed in these homes is proving it can more than double the self-consumption of solar
electricity via the heat batteries, dramatically reducing the amount of gas or electricity used to make hot water.

Mr Wheelhouse visited retired couple John and Margaret Murphy at their 2-bed terraced
home in Newtongrange, fitted with solar PV and a SunampPV heat battery, to find out how the new technology is working for them.

Mr Murphy said: “It has definitely made a difference to us. We are already seeing a dip in our fuel costs, and hot water seems to come through much faster than it did before. The installation went smoothly and the heat battery fits into a small cupboard.”

Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy, Paul Wheelhouse, said: “This innovative project uses solar panels and heat storage batteries to cut fuel costs for hundreds of housing association residents. I am pleased to see the first part of this novel scheme reach completion here in Newtongrange and I wish Sunamp and Castle Rock Edinvar Housing Association the very best of fortune as their work to use innovation in energy storage to reduce fuel poverty continues.
 
“More homes and businesses across Scotland are seeing the benefit of renewable heat. New figures published by the Energy Saving Trust, on behalf of the Scottish Government,
estimate that last year saw the largest annual increase in renewable heat output since
measurement began in 2008 – up by over 1,100 GWh in a single year.

“There remains more work to do to reduce demand, supply heat more efficiently and
increase the role renewable heat plays in Scotland’s energy mix. More than half the energy we use in Scotland is used to provide heat and that's why we continue to develop new and existing avenues of support in this important area and this will be reflected as a key priority in our forthcoming Energy Strategy.”

Sunamp founder Andrew Bissell said: “We are super-excited that we’ve been able to work with our partners including Scottish Government, Local Energy Scotland and Castle Rock Edinvar to develop and deliver the world’s most advanced heat battery energy storage into over a thousand homes, increasing comfort and reducing bills. One of the aims of this project is to make sure it is replicable. We already have interested social landlords across the country who want to bring the benefits of heat batteries to their own tenants. We look forward to working with them.”

Castle Rock Edinvar Richard Jennings Head of Property said: “Addressing fuel poverty is a priority for us, as is the comfort of our tenants, and we realised we would have to be innovative in our approach if we are truly to have an impact. We are grateful to Scottish Government for awarding us grant support. Everyone involved stepped up to the challenge of delivering a large scale installation within a short timeframe and we are very pleased with the result. EastHeat has proved to be a highly replicable model that will allow social housing providers to meet the Energy Efficiency Standards for Social Housing.”

Energy efficiency improvements were made at a total of 1190 properties across Edinburgh, the Lothians, Falkirk and Stirling. In other parts of the project Sunamp replaced hard to control, costly electric heating systems (including night storage heaters) with comfortable, controllable radiator-based systems equipped with heat batteries to allow the use of cheap, off-peak electricity.



Mr and Mrs Murphy


Left to right - John Mackay, Mackay Homes, -  Richard Jennings, Managing Director, Castle Rock Edinvar,  Christine Grahame, MSP, Midlothian South, Tweedale and Lauderdale , MSP Paul Wheelhouse, MSP, Minister for Business, - Andrew Bissell, CEO, Sunamp


Joan Pisanek, Business Development Manager, Sunamp Ltd with children form Windygoul Primary School Tranent.

We were delighted to be the focus of a recent episode of cult energy show Fully Charged, the weekly online show hosted by Red Dwarf actor and Scrapheap Challenge presenter Robert Llewellyn.


Fully Charged investigates the future of sustainable energy, from electric vehicles to the 
future of energy generation. Robert Llewellyn describes Sunamp’s heat battery technology as “amazing” when he visits the home of employee Andy Trewin near Bristol. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9upXeTMHUqE

Andy installed the PV system on his south facing roof in 2011. In March 2015 he fitted a 5 kilo watt SunampPV heat battery to store excess generation and release heat on demand for hot water and for central heating. In the first year Andy reduced his gas bill by over 75%.

Speaking on the show, Andy says: “I started off with one SunampPV battery, and I’m now experimenting with two to make more use of the excess energy produced. The battery links through to the back of the boiler and when I switch on the tap cold mains water flows through the battery and instantly heats up to 58 degrees. A blending valve cools it to a comfort level, giving us hot water on demand using solar energy.”

A compact SunampPV battery with 16 litres of phase material will produce 50 litres of hot 
water on demand, doing away with the need for large hot water tanks. The batteries also 
have an impressive lifespan and the system has been on a cycle testing rig and has been charged and drained 20,000 times so far, the equivalent of around 55 years, and hasn’t yet shown any signs of degradation.

Andy has set up a web page which shows live details of energy usage in his home.

http://wattson.energyhive.com/dashboard/AndyT

           

        

Consortium receives Newton Fund award to develop heat storage enhanced Organic Rankine Cycle power generation technology that will reduce use of fossil fuels.


Sunamp, an SME and world leader in high energy density, high power density Heat Battery energy storage, has led a successful funding bid jointly with Glasgow University and partners in China to boost the performance of Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) power plants that use clean, although intermittent, renewable heat sources for distributed heat and power supply in China.

By integrating Sunamp’s heat storage technologies with the ORC it is possible to produce a more dependable distributed heat and power supply using a wide range of renewable heat sources, such as solar energy.

ORC has the same working principle as a steam power cycle, except it uses organic 
compounds with low boiling points as working fluids. It is believed to be among the most 
promising technologies to use sources of renewable heat and cut pollution generated by 
fossil fuels, and it perfectly fits  the needs of a country like China, still mainly relying on coal for its heat and power needs, but with big plans to increase penetration of renewables.

The joint project has been awarded £2M (10M RMB and £815K GBP) funding from the 
China-UK Research and Innovation Bridges programme, a joint UK China initiative under the Newton Fund developing cutting edge solutions for agri-food, energy, healthcare, and urbanisation. At £21m it is largest ever bilateral call between UK and China. In addition, UK partners have contributed £182K towards project costs and Chinese partners contributed a further £577K.

The research consortium comprises Sunamp Ltd and University of Glasgow in the UK, and Chinese project lead Beijing University of Technology (BJUT) and business partner China Investment Yixing Red Sun Solar Energy Technology Company (CIYR), a medium sized SME focusing on solar thermal power generation technologies. 

Andrew Bissell, Sunamp founder and CEO, said: “To overcome the intermittency of solar energy, Sunamp heat batteries will be integrated with  ORC power plants to store heat energy for power generation when the sun doesn’t shine.  This funding award allows us to bring together complementary expertise of the project partners in the UK and China to address the remaining technical challenges ready for commercial roll out.”

Academic leader Dr Zhibin Yu from the University of Glasgow’s School of Engineering said: “We’re pleased to be working on this exciting project with Sunamp, Beijing University of Technology and China Investment Yixing Red Sun Solar Energy Technology Company.

“The Rankine Cycle is named after the University of Glasgow pioneer Professor William 
Rankine FRS (1820-1872), so it’s particularly fitting that the University of Glasgow is 
contributing to this project. Building upon on-going research on ORC power generation 
technologies at the School, this exciting project will facilitate knowledge transfer, delivering real impacts to the world.”