Agricultural and sport college swaps big bills for biomass

Natural energy supplier, Euroheat is helping the UK's leading agricultural and sports college save an impressive 400,000kg of carbon per year by making the switch to biomass technology in a bid to reduce its annual £800,000 energy bill, while receiving Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) payments of just under £80,000 per year.

Hartpury College campus, in Gloucester, covers some 360 hectares and is a residential learning hub for more than 1300 students working towards qualifications in equine, sport and animal and land studies. The site already boasts solar pv panels, so it was a natural progression that further green technology was installed.

Simon Holden, co-founder of Euroheat, explained: "We're delighted the college is now reaping huge benefits by opting for a biomass district heating system. We have installed four Euroheat prefabricated Energy Cabins, each containing a 199kW HDG Compact wood pellet boiler, integrated 14 tonne pellet store and 4000 litre accumulator.

"As a result, campus managers can now look forward to saving on the cost of over 150,000 litres of oil previously used on-site, replacing it with the estimated 300 tonnes of wood pellets the boilers will use."

Completed in December 2014, the project required a solution to supply heat and hot water to the accommodation, kitchen and Further Education buildings. Euroheat were identified as the best supplier for the project by Steve Luker Associates, consultant for the project, who added: "There were no real issues with installation; once the preparation work had been completed to link into the existing oil system, which is being retained as back-up; the Energy Cabins were simply and swiftly installed.

"The part of the campus now benefiting from biomass previously cost some £143,000 per year to heating, so taking into account previous fuel costs, we can say that it is hoped that savings will amount to over £100,000 a year when lower cost fuel is combined with the RHI. Obviously exact figures will be monitored closely over the next year."