Oilon delivered a heat pump to a positive clean energy district for capturing waste energy and producing both heating and cooling.
The European Heat Pump Association (EHPA) recognized energy company Turku Energia with the Heat Pump City of the Year award for the company’s energy-efficient residential area solution. Turku, the third largest city in Finland, is one of the two Lighthouse Cities of the EU-funded RESPONSE project, Dijon being the other. These cities are involved in piloting and developing energy-positive residential buildings and areas.
In the Turku Ylioppilaskylä pilot area, the goal was to create a solution that would allow the area to produce more energy than it consumes at an annual basis.
“When necessary, the area can take either cooling or heating energy from the district energy networks but it also supplies surplus energy to the networks,” says Martti Kukkola, Oilon’s chief business officer for industrial heat pumps and chillers.
One of the key locations in the area is Tyyssija, a student residence with around 190 apartments and its own solar panels. Oilon’s contribution comprised an Oilon ChillHeat P 300 heat pump with a 400-kW heating and nearly 300-kW cooling capacity. “Even alone, the heat pump delivered to the site could provide heating for around 40 single-family homes,” Kukkola says.
Heating and cooling based on current need
What makes the heat pump used at Tyyssija special is that it has as two-way connection to the city’s district heating and district cooling network.
The heat pump itself produces heating, cooling, or both depending on current need. This flexibility allows the heat pump to meet of the building’s heating and cooling needs with a good coefficient of performance all year round.
“At its best, the unit’s seasonal coefficient of performance has been 7, which means that for one unit of electricity used, the heat pump produces seven units of energy,” Kukkola says. This is not the first time Oilon’s heat pumps receive recognition from EHPA. In 2022, the company’s joint project with Helen – Postipuisto, an apartment building in Helsinki – won the Heat Pump of the Year award in the DecarBuilding category.
Key item on Turku’s carbon neutrality roadmap
Turku aims to become carbon neutral by 2029. Turku Energia’s Group Product Manager Lotta Lyytikäinen believes that heat pumps play a central role in achieving this goal.
“With heat pumps, you can utilize different energy sources and reuse energy in the form you actually need. Heat pumps are outstanding in utilizing waste energy, for example,” Lyytikäinen says.
The RESPONSE project is part of the Horizon 2020 initiative. In addition to Turku Energia, there are 5 project partners: the City of Turku, Turku Student Village Foundation, Högfors GST, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, and Oilon. “It is wonderful that a joint project like this can receive such an award. It is a testament to successful and effective co-operation.”