J&E Hall Gold Medal Paper Presentation

Webinar recording

Access the webinar recording here 

Paper download

The paper is available to download here.

Overview 

Whilst the technical capability of heat pumps increases each year, and the performance from a global and local emissions standpoint is unarguable, heat pumps still remain somewhat of a second or perhaps third choice in the UK energy landscape at best. This isn’t because their application segment is niche (heating with gas is the single largest CO2 emitting activity in the UK), nor is it a lack of supply chain capacity.

What has been happening to see the number of applications rise? More importantly, what needs to change if heat pumps are to be the number one choice for heating across all segments?

This paper draws on technical and commercial aspects whilst weaving in the policy successes and failures that make up this complex but continuously overlooked new paradigm in clean energy.

Could every building in Britain be heated with heat pumps? And if so what level of local and national impact, both positive and negative would ensue?

Presenter

Dave Pearson FInstR. Winner of the J&E Hall Gold Medal

Dave graduated in 1996 in Mechanical Engineering with Business Management and European Studies from the University of Strathclyde and joined Howden Compressors where in 1998 he commenced his Masters in Business Administration as a part-time student. His masters dissertation was “Innovation and New Product Development” which he completed at Star Refrigeration, having joined as a Design Engineer in 1999. After a 4 year period at Starfrost, a Lowestoft based spiral freezer and tunnel manufacturer acquired by Star in 2004 he returned to his native Glasgow in 2008 as Director of Innovation at Star Refrigeration. It was in this role that he helped the UK firm explore the opportunities in heat pumps. Increasing their focus in 2013 with the establishment of Star Renewable Energy (SRE), in 2018, Dave finally managed to repeat the success that Star achieved in Norway with marine water heat pumps at Queens Quay in Clydebank. Nicky Cowan now leads SRE with Dave taking added responsibility for the group’s aspirations to maximise their influence across the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Dave lives in Glasgow with his accountant wife and two teenage kids in a gas free home and enjoys fossil free motoring in “Sonic” (so named by his son as it’s blue and fast).