Kingston Heights scoops top prize at 2014 Climate Week Awards

05/03/2024

The pioneering Kingston Heights mixed-used development in Surrey has won the prestigious ‘Best New Product or Technology’ award at the 2014 Climate Week Awards, presented yesterday by Greg Barker MP, the UK Minister for Climate Change, at the Ecobuild exhibition at the Excel Centre in London’s Docklands.

Built by United House for NHP Leisure Developments, Kingston Heights is a £70m mixed-use scheme situated near the banks of the River Thames that features the first Open Water Heat Pump system in the UK, which uses river water to provide heat, hot water and cooling for the 137 apartments (including 56 affordable homes for Affinity Sutton) and 142 bedroom hotel. The system will save over 500 tonnes of CO2 being emitted into the environment that would otherwise be released by a combustion-based system, and is projected to reduce household energy bills by around 16% per annum.

The system was formally switched on in October 2013 by Ed Davey, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, and has been welcomed by Kingston Council and the Environment Agency. Mr Davey commented: “Kingston Heights is a great example of how sustainable solutions can help power entire communities. I want to see a community energy revolution where projects like this are the norm, not the exception.”

The Climate Week Awards, run as part of Climate Week - Britain’s biggest climate change campaign - seek to showcase the UK’s most innovative, effective and ambitious organisations, communities and individuals which help people to live and work more sustainably, thus helping to combat climate change.

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For more information about how the Open Water Heat Pump system works click here