MTC Adds 786-kW Solar Thermal Roof for Heat and Cooling in Coventry

• MTC has invested £1.3m in 1,965 Naked Energy solar thermal collectors at its Ansty Park campus in Coventry.
• The roof yields up to 786 kW of heat for an absorption chiller in summer, plus space heating and hot water all year.
• The companies call it the UK's largest solar thermal installation; MTC expects to save 37 tCO2e a year.

The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) has invested £1.3 million ($1.74 million) in 1,965 solar thermal collectors at its Ansty Park campus in Coventry. MTC, which worked with collector maker Naked Energy, calls it the UK's largest solar thermal installation.

The system makes heat, not electricity. It uses Naked Energy's VirtuHOT collectors and is rated at up to 786 kW of thermal output, MTC said in a statement. Each collector is a single-wall glass vacuum tube with a selective coating. It can heat water to as much as 120°C, according to the product page. These are not photovoltaic panels, and not the mirror fields of concentrated solar power. Naked Energy also sells a hybrid model, VirtuPVT, that adds electricity, but MTC names only VirtuHOT.

In summer the heat will feed an absorption chiller that cools MTC's manufacturing research facility. The rest of the year, the collectors supply space heating and hot water through an 8,000-litre storage tank. MTC expects the on-site system to cut its emissions by 37 tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year. West Midlands engineering firm SHEco Group delivered and installed the project.

The roof in numbers

• 1,965 VirtuHOT collectors on the roof of one MTC building.
• 786 kW of peak heat output, described by MTC as "up to".
• 400 W of peak heat per collector (list.solar calculation).
• £1,654 ($2,218) of investment per kW of peak thermal output (list.solar calculation).
• 4.7 times the 420 VirtuHOT collectors that Naked Energy lists at Westgate Leisure Centre in southern England (list.solar calculation).
• 0.7% of UK renewable heat demand in 2025 came from primary sources such as active solar heating and geothermal, against 61% for solid biomass and 26% for heat pumps, government statistics show.

"Many of our customers are asking how they can reduce their reliance on gas, and this project gives them a real-world example of what's possible," said Adam Clark, commercial director at SHEco Group.

Solar thermal is ready to play its role in the energy transition, said Christophe Williams, co-founder and chief executive of Naked Energy. MTC did not say when the chiller will run its first cooling season or how much heat the array should deliver in a year.