Most suppliers have made real progress switching to renewable electricity, but cutting the emissions from heat has been much slower. As part of Secaro's Clean Heat Program Technology Series, we hosted a webinar on how heat pumps can help close that gap. We've split the recording into a short series of episodes. In Part 1, Emily Prior, Chief Growth Officer at Secaro, explains what the Clean Heat Program is and how it supports you. In Part 2, Matt Jahromi, Partner at ERM, explains how heat pumps work and gives a simple way to judge whether you might have a viable project.
About the Clean Heat Program
The Clean Heat Program helps suppliers decarbonize the heat used at their sites and reduce their Scope 1 emissions. Suppliers join at the invitation of their customers. Secaro designed the program using feedback from both suppliers and their customers, and built it so you can take part at whatever stage you're at. ERM is the program's key technical partner.
Part 1: What is the Clean Heat Program?
Key takeaways:
- The program is built around four pillars that you can dip in and out of: education, assessment, connection, and funding.
- Education covers webinars, case studies, technical guidance sheets, and drop-in clinics, delivered with expert partners like ERM.
- The assessment scores your site on a heat maturity matrix, matches you to relevant technologies, and gives you a tailored plan showing where you stand against your peers.
- The connection pillar gives you access to technical and implementation partners, wherever your sites are based.
- Funding was one of the biggest barriers suppliers named in Secaro's research, so the program offers access to public funding and private financing from finance partners at favorable rates.
- If you already have a decarbonization plan, you can upload it to the platform and get support with financing it.
Part 2: How heat pumps work
Key takeaways:
- Reduce your demand first, then decarbonize what's left. Matt's advice is to get your energy use to its optimum profile before deciding what to replace.
- A heat pump runs on electricity and turns low-grade or waste heat into useful heat. It can take energy from the air, the ground, or water and turn it into hot water or steam.
- Paired with renewable electricity, a heat pump can cut the Scope 1 emissions from heat by up to 100%. The electricity has to come from a renewable source, either generated on site or bought through a renewable contract.
- Heat pumps are more than 100% efficient. An electric boiler reaches 98–99% at best. A heat pump does better because it brings in free heat from outside the system.
- This is proven technology. A heat pump is a refrigeration system running in reverse, which is why around 90% of heat pump suppliers are refrigeration companies. Their widespread use for high-temperature industrial heat is newer.
- Two temperatures tell you most of what you need to know. The source is the temperature of the heat going into the heat pump. The sink is the temperature you need coming out. The smaller the gap between them, the more efficient the heat pump.
- A simple formula gives you a first estimate of efficiency (COP): COP ≈ 0.6 × sink temperature in Kelvin ÷ (sink temperature − source temperature). It won't be exact, but it helps you judge early on whether you're looking at a two-year payback or a 20-year one, before you speak to suppliers.
