Penryn Campus swaps gas boilers for heat pumps

The gas boilers heating the sports centre at Penryn Campus are on their way out. In their place, a bank of Mitsubishi Electric air-source heat pumps will take over the job of keeping the building warm, part of a wider push to strip fossil-fuel heating out of one of Cornwall’s biggest university sites.

📷Credit: ZLC Energy

A major step in campus heat decarbonisation

ZLC Energy has been formally awarded the contract by Falmouth Exeter Plus, known as FX Plus, following a competitive procurement process. The Liskeard firm will replace the energy-inefficient gas boilers at the Penryn Campus Sports Centre with a 120kWth Mitsubishi Electric air-source heating system.

Heat decarbonisation is one of the most difficult parts of any campus energy transformation. Swapping out fossil-fuel boilers for high-efficiency heat pumps is central to cutting emissions, steadying long-term running costs and meeting institutional climate commitments.

Penryn Campus, operated by FX Plus, has already made significant carbon reductions through a coordinated programme of solar PV, heat pump pilots, energy resilience planning and private-wire generation. This new contract continues that momentum, and marks the next phase in the campus’s long-term decarbonisation programme, reinforcing its place as one of the South West’s leading examples of structured, multi-technology net-zero delivery.

“We’re proud to continue our long-standing partnership with FX Plus,” said Mark Smith, Managing Director of ZLC Energy. “Over the past six years we’ve worked together to build one of Cornwall’s most successful campus decarbonisation programmes, and this new contract is the next step in removing gas heating from the estate.”

Chris Piper, Head of Estates at FX Plus, said the sports centre works were an important part of that wider plan. “We are pleased to award this contract to ZLC Energy following a competitive procurement process,” Chris said. “The Sports Centre heat pump installation is a key step in removing outdated gas heating from the estate and further reducing our carbon footprint.”

📷Credit: ZLC Energy

The unique challenges of decarbonising a sports centre

Decarbonising a sports centre is technically demanding in a way that an office block, for instance, is not. These buildings carry high and highly variable heat demand, large volumes of hot water, long operating hours and ventilation loads that shift minute to minute. Replacing gas boilers in that kind of environment calls for technology that can deliver reliable, high-efficiency heating and hot water without relying on fossil fuels.

For this project, FX Plus selected Mitsubishi Electric air-source heat pump technology because it is built for complex commercial environments and integrates cleanly with the campus’s existing building management systems. The units are smart-grid compatible and can be remotely monitored, giving the estates team far better visibility and control over how energy is being used across the site.

The installation represents a practical, future-proof step in removing gas heating from the Penryn Campus estate, and one more piece in a decarbonisation programme that has been six years in the building between FX Plus and ZLC Energy.

📷Credit: ZLC Energy