The gift of a CHP (combined heat and power) unit from global engine manufacturer, Yanmar Co., Ltd has led to a prestigious national award being made to the contractors responsible for its installation at leading regional homelessness charity, The Cyrenians.
The Community and Residential Award, made at the Combined Heat and Power Association’s (CHPA) annual awards and gala dinner, recognises a project delivering environmental benefit alongside wider community benefits that the scheme serves.
In March 2009 Yanmar donated and installed a 10kW Combined Heat and Power (CHP) unit to The Cyrenians’ largest residential project which is used to support vulnerable and homeless people.
The Cyrenians’ unit was the first commercial Micro-CHP for Yanmar in Europe. It was installed by Newcastle-based ESP Projects, winners of the award, who are specialists in low-carbon engineering consultancy and contracting. The unit was supplied via Manchester based ENER-G.
The many benefits of the CHP unit include its total independence of the National Grid (it is powered solely by gas), significantly reduced energy bills and substantially reduced carbon emissions.
Graham Meeks, Director of the CHPA and chairman of the judges, said:
“Yanmar’s initiative in conjunction with The Cyrenians is an outstanding example of good corporate social responsibility in action. Having identified a suitable beneficiary, the company continued to support the organisation through installation, commissioning and use. The firm’s commitment and approach to the project is to be commended.”
Stephen Bell, Chief Executive of The Cyrenians, said:
“Combined heat and power may sound complicated and technical but to me it’s very simple – we benefit from much cheaper energy, so helping us to reduce our running costs so allowing us to spend more on frontline services. And we’re also reducing our carbon footprint. It’s a win-win situation.
“We continue to be very grateful to Yanmar for their vision in offering this unit to us in the first place and for their generosity in making such a donation. Without them recognition through this award would not have been possible.”
Makoto Yasuda, UK representative of Yanmar based in the North East added:
“Recently this CHP unit achieved 10,000 hours operation with no maintenance. This not only proves our CHP’s excellent performance and durability but also enables less frequent service so creating even greater financial savings for The Cyrenians.”
Stressing the importance of the industry in general and the awards in particular, Graham Meeks explained:
“The quantity and quality of entries we received this year was very impressive. It was equally encouraging to see the sophistication of entries also develop.
“The aggregate savings delivered across the entries received are substantial; specifically cost savings in excess of £2 million and CO2 savings of over 25,000 tonnes. This highlights the value such schemes can provide to consumers, business and industry alike.”
The Cyrenians project was facilitated by NaREC and supported by One North East.
