Sheepdrove is harvesting heat from the earth with a ground source heat pump. A buried network of pipes will capture this geothermal heat and use it as renewable energy to power the central heating and cooling systems in our sustainable wedding and events venue. The whole system is powered by renewable electricity from our two wind turbines and 900 solar panels reducing on-site emissions to net zero.
The ground source heat pump will replace a 148kW eco green gas LPG heating system with zero carbon renewable heating. This will save 49tCO2e of Scope 1 emissions, whilst reducing overall emissions by 39tCO2e.
Nineteen 150 metre long trenches have been cut 1.3 metre deep into our chalky soil into what was a field of rye beside the farm buildings and the market garden. Once the trenches are filled in, the field will go back to being part of our organic mixed farm rotation to be sown as required with oats, rye or a clover rich herbal ley mix for grazing so no productive agricultural land will be lost.
Into these deep chalky trenches pipes were laid and buried. When operational, brine will circulate through the piping and collect geothermal energy to heat and cool our farm offices and the conference, wedding and events venue housed in Sheepdrove’s eco friendly green building.
We’ve been working with Tom Beckett of Better Century and Bob Roddy of Amber Heating and would highly recommend them to any other events venues wishing to cut their carbon footprint to or towards carbon zero.
Sheepdrove is continually working to improve the sustainable management of energy, water, soil and other natural resources not only in our wedding and events venue but on the farm and in the farm stays. The ground source heat pump is the latest step on a journey to carbon net zero that includes two wind turbines, 900 solar panels, a reed bed grey water recycling system, and a rewilding project.
