Queens Quay

The UK's Largest Water Source Heat Pump

Queens Quay is home to Scotland’s first large-scale water source heat pump, providing low-carbon heat to homes, businesses and public buildings across the development.

Executive Summary

The Queens Quay Heat Pump scheme is the largest of its kind in the UK and will take heat from the River Clyde and use it to heat local homes and businesses. The project is particularly exciting as it will demonstrate the viability of large-scale heat pump projects in the UK. To design water source heat pumps, it is essential to fully understand the water source and for the Queens Quay project this is a tidal, saltwater river which is under the protection of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and has a range of both plant and aquatic life.

What we’ve achieved with this project

£15m

Contract Value

409

tonnes of carbon saved in the first year

3

National Awards

Project Overview

The Queens Quay development in Clydebank will transform the former John Brown Shipyard from an industrial landscape to a vibrant, diverse and architecturally engaging community. The plans for the 23 hectare site will create 1,000 private homes, 200 rented homes and the associated infrastructure to support them such as a health centre, care home and commercial facilities.

The site already included four existing buildings; Titan Enterprise Business Centre, Aurora House council offices, Clyde Bank College and the Clydebank Leisure Centre and these will be integrated into the new community.

The project is ground breaking in many ways, but one of the truly exciting aspects is that it will feature Scotland’s first major Water Source Heat Pump, taking heat from the nearby River Clyde and pumping it to customers through a system of buried district heating network.

Water source heat pump being lifted into the energy centre at Queens Quay.

Project Detail

The developers and the council had ambitions of making this Scotland’s “greenest town” and stated three core ambitions for the energy infrastructure:

Lower bills for residents offering a reduced tariff and no costs for servicing or repairs
Reducing carbon emissions through the use of an innovative water source heat pump. The eventual savings after build out will be equal to the total carbon footprint of over 1,240 local residents.
Increased security of supply ensuring a minimum of down time and constant access to heat for all customers.

By the bid stage, the client and their consultants, Ramboll had created a RIBA stage 3 design based on their heating demand estimates and specified two x 2MW water source heat pumps as well as additional boilers and ancillary equipment. To make the scheme financially viable, the clients entered into an Invitation to Negotiate, in which interested contractors could explore options for reducing the CAPEX needed to bring the project to market. Whilst we always apply the principals of value engineering to reduce the cost of a project, in this instance we were also able to make a significant financial contribution towards the cost of the project.

Fantastic design from Vital – really impressive. They have added value all the way through the scheme. What was designed, wasn’t fit for purpose so Vital worked with the design to ensure the solution was right for us and the scheme. Vital have also assisted us with the modelling and we wouldn’t be where we are without Vitals help.

Jim McAloon, West Dunbartonshire Council, Strategic Lead Regeneration

Key Benefits

Evolving the design in partnership with the client

Once we were chosen we were responsible for progressing the design to RIBA Stage 4, where the Technical Design has been finalised. To do this we worked in consultation with the client and their professional team to progress the design and this began by combining CIBSE benchmarks with our database of high resolution, real-life heating data to predict the heat demands. By introducing our database of historical heating data we were able to create more accurate profiles for the new build sections of the development. For the existing buildings we were able to take the gas usage data to model future energy needs.

We then diversified the data to give us a clear picture of average usage across the site which allowed our designers to begin sizing the major plant. During this process our designers had to make some important decisions about the sizing of the heat pumps and we worked closely with Star Renewables who were designing and building the heat pumps.

Understanding the river & ecosystem and its influence on design

To design water source heat pumps, it is essential to fully understand the water source and for the Queens Quay project this is a tidal, saltwater river which is under the protection of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and has a range of both plant and aquatic life. This meant we had to fully acquaint ourselves with the information including:

Average water temperature
Seasonal water temperature
Flow rates
Wildlife and ecostructure

We began by building a comprehensive picture of the river and how that would affect our design. The initial stages involved desktop research to map the river’s temperatures throughout the year, establishing that it generally ranges from between 6-12 degrees Celsius.

Designing a 21st century heating system & updating existing buildings

One of the main hurdles facing our designers was that the heat network would be made up of a mixture of new-build premises and older existing buildings. The older buildings had been designed for historic heating systems which favour a higher 82°C flow and 71°C degree return and whilst the ammonia based heat pumps are capable of delivering that, the new building’s heating systems are designed specifically for efficient district heating and are based around a 75°C flow and 45°C return.

Working with the clients to deliver an optimised energy centre

To create the energy centre we worked with the building contractor to deliver the optimum layout. One issue was that the building had received planning permission, so we were working with a set building footprint. Our designers then set out with these restrictions to, not only to create an efficient layout, but also one in which operation and maintenance could be delivered in a safe and efficient manner.

To achieve this we created a mezzanine solution which allowed us to optimise the space available to us. We then designed the standard energy ventilation to ensure this met all essential legislation, but due to the fact that the heat pump process uses ammonia as a refrigerant we also needed to create an emergency ventilation scheme to ensure it would not harm anyone in the energy centre or further afield. To do this we created a box which housed the heat exchangers and a ventilation system which led to a 30m flue. In the unlikely event of a leak the gasses could immediately be expelled into the atmosphere where they would safely disperse.

A Multi Award Winning Project

The Queens Quay Project has proven one of the most successful of recent times, collecting national and international awards.

European Heat Pump Awards – Heat Pump City of the Year
Scottish Green Energy Awards – Carbon Reduction Award
ADE Awards – Contribution to Net Zero
H&V Awards – Heat Pump Project of the year (Highly Commended)
Scottish Green Energy Awards – Outstanding Project Award (Finalist)
Scottish Green Energy Awards – Sustainable Development Award (Finalist)