Colleagues in the UK are tackling one of the biggest challenges to timely climate action, greatly reducing 21st century building and facility energy use by resorting to smarter integration of heat pumps and thermal storage. A small team that calls itself Future Bay is taking a highly innovative and integrative approach to 21st century building energy systems. I’m especially interested in their current venture because the team succeeded in a previous venture that required the same skill sets.
Future Bay takes a systems approach to energy efficiency. Their system converts off peak electricity to 24/7 heating, cooling and electricity supply using off the shelf heat pumps and the cheapest and most familiar methods of energy storage, hot and cold water. It exploits basic realities of thermodynamics; for example, that a heat pump works most efficiently when pumping heat across small temperature differences.
Future Bay already demonstrated their solution in a commercial setting, though comparisons of predicted and actual performance have not been published. To move forward, the team needs to exploit the patents they’ve developed. This means finding clients with plans for numerous new facilities that use a lot of electricity for cooling and/or commercial operations. Future Bay thinks data centers might be their best target. Reliance on grid electricity and backup power sources to achieve ultra-high reliability and resilience will be increasingly costly.
What is at stake is a way to take a big bite out of grid electricity use without significant improvements in component and sub-system efficiency. Heat pump technology is mature and bumping up against thermodynamic limits. Marrying it with thermal storage neutralizes the limits.
In my view, also marrying it with on-site renewable energy, both solar water heating and solar PV, could greatly reduce facility energy bills in areas good or excellent solar resources. Timely commercialization hinges on the team and its forward strategy. I wish Future Bay a smooth path that opens up soon and in the right direction.
For more information about Future Bay, click here.