UK’s largest solar thermal farm to heat manufacturing research centre

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A leading manufacturing research centre in Coventry has invested £1.3m ($1.75m) to install nearly 2,000 solar thermal collectors, which will become the largest such installation in the UK. 

The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) said the 1,277 m² rooftop farm will generate up to 786 kW of heat for the site’s buildings. In addition, the solar thermal collectors, manufactured by Naked Energy, will serve an absorption chiller providing cooling in the summer. 

Naked Energy describes its thermal collectors as the “world’s highest energy-density solar technology”. Based on bespoke array geometry including low profile tubes and integrated reflectors, the company says they can save up to 10 times as much carbon as standard solar photovoltaic panels. The MTC said the installation will reduce annual emissions by up to 37 tCO2e. 

Naked Energy CEO and co-founder Christophe Williams said: “This project shows what can be achieved when renewable solar heat is designed as part of a modern system, resulting in increased efficiency and lower emissions. 

“The energy transition isn’t a distant ambition. It’s gaining real speed, and solar thermal is ready to play its role in it.”

Founded in 2010 by Loughborough University and the Universities of Birmingham and Nottingham, the MTC specialises in supporting manufacturing and scaleup research across the defence, aerospace, energy, built environment, space, agriculture and food and drink sectors. It is now supported by the UK government agency Innovate UK, and employs 900 people across sites in Coventry, Liverpool and Oxford. 

Missing connections

The MTC described heat as the “overlooked half of the energy transition”, accounting for around one-third of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. A recent report published by Energy Systems Nexus, an industry-funded research organisation, found thousands of possible sources of renewable heat across the UK that are currently unutilised, and called for more coordinated policy to connect the sources to existing heat networks. 

Nuclear power stations, energy-from-waste plants, data centres and retail refrigerators were among the 4,780 heat sources identified within 1 km of a heat network. 

Energy Systems Nexus lead Alex Buckman said the challenges of integrating waste heat into networks “are less technical and more about coordinated actions that understand the needs and perspectives of both the offtaker and the heat supplier”.