The Department of Housing and Urban Agenda of the Basque Government and TECNALIA awarded in Brussels for their solution to decarbonise energy systems in buildings

• The European Heat Pump Association has recognised the pilot project led by the research and technological development centre with its prestigious awards for contributing to sustainable air conditioning.
• This is an innovative and efficient solution for the renovation sector, based on cascade heat pumps, and is currently being applied at a residential building in Pasaia (Gipuzkoa).
• The CEO of Alokabide, Patricia Val, has highlighted the "tremendous challenge" the public company faces over the coming years in terms of the energy refurbishment, decarbonisation and accessibility of housing stock, following the guidelines of Plan Zero 2020-2050.

The Department of Housing and Urban Agenda of the Basque Government and TECNALIA, the centre of research and technological development, have been recognised with the prestigious 'The Heat Pump Award' for the innovative solution developed to decarbonise energy systems in buildings currently being applied at 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 air conditioning.

The awards ceremony took place last night in Brussels, where Patricia Val, CEO of Alokabide, accompanied by Irantzu Urkola, project coordinator and project manager at TECNALIA, collected the award in the DecarBuilding Award category. Urkola acknowledged that "this is a recognition of work based on collaboration and which pursues the triple objective of energy efficiency, economic savings for residents and improvement of the environmental impact of the building, which will be key in the communities of the future". For her part, Patricia Val highlighted the "tremendous challenge" facing Alokabide over the coming years in terms of the energy refurbishment, decarbonisation and accessibility of housing stock, following the guidelines of Plan Zero 2020-2050.

It should be noted that the public company, which manages around 17,000 public housing units for social rent in the Basque Country will carry out "a transition that will allow us to offer a better service to our customers, more respectful of the environment while also serving as a driver of economic activity, as it is planned to invest over 192 million euros", she explained.

The solution recognised in Europe is based on cascade heat pumps that are hybridised with locally produced renewable energy, primarily solar. Heat for heating and ACS services is generated in two stages or, thermal jumps, and a demonstration was performed at a residential building in Pasaia. It is an innovative and efficient solution for the building energy system refurbishment sector, maximising self-sufficiency and energy savings while reducing environmental impact.

This solution responds to the current problems faced with 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. "Both the Basque Government's Department of Housing and Urban Agenda and Alokabide consider our collaboration with the European 'HAPPENING' initiative to be very positive, because the electrification of buildings in general and heat pumps in particular are a key technology for introducing renewables into the heat supply of new and refurbished buildings", explained Val. "The decarbonisation of the energy system of our existing buildings plays a key role in achieving the Plan Zero 2020-2050 targets for making our housing stock climate neutral."

A pioneering building in Europe

The solution is currently being developed in a multi-family residential building managed by Alokabide, the Basque Government's public rental management body, in coordination with other housing policy stakeholders, where two central heat pumps have been installed to preheat the water stored in a tank. This accumulation makes it possible to decouple central generation from individual household consumption, making it possible to concentrate the use of central heat pumps at times of day when their efficiency is at its 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 thermal losses in distribution, a great advantage over centralised systems where so much energy is lost in this part of the installation.

In each home, to complete the heating of the water to the temperature of use, there is an individual heat pump that takes the heat from the water distribution and raises it to the consumption temperature, adapting perfectly to the particular demands of each user, and with optimum 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 on a renewable basis. 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 and residents save on their energy bills while also reducing the environmental impact.

This solution makes it possible to achieve a considerable share of renewable energy. The solution is also complemented by near-zero planning, implementation and operation processes, which ensure a quality installation and reduces the extent and costs of the renovation project.

In addition to TECNALIA, partners collaborating on the initiative, called HAPPENING, included 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, Asociación Nacional de Empresas de Servicios Energéticos (ANESE), CARTIF and Alokabide.

This video shows the operation of the pump system in the Pasaia building