The government has awarded £91m in funding to a series of heat-network projects across England – including the UK’s first system to draw heat from deep underground to provide low-cost heating for nearly 4,000 homes.
The Langarth Deep Geothermal Heat Network – which will involve drilling to a depth of 5,275 meters to extract the heat from granite rocks beneath the United Downs Industrial Site in Cornwall – is one of the seven projects to be supported by the government’s Green Heat Network Fund.
The government says the projects will boost the UK’s energy security and independence and help deliver on its commitment to grow the economy – with the schemes expected to create hundreds of new, skilled jobs.
‘Energy revolution’
Commenting on the funding, Lord Callanan, minister for Energy Efficiency and Green Finance, said: “The UK is a world leader when it comes to reducing carbon emissions – but we must continue to push the boundaries to reach our net-zero goal.
“These innovative projects will not only benefit the communities they serve, by reducing emissions and providing low-cost heating that helps to drive down energy bills, but also support the nation’s push for greater energy security and independence.
“They form part of our energy revolution – creating hundreds of new jobs for our ever-expanding green economy.”
The Green Heat Network Fund (GHNF) is a £288m scheme that opened in March 2022 to public-, private-, and third-sector applicants in England.
The scheme, anticipated to run till 2025, replaced the Heat Networks Investment Project (HNIP), which closed for applications in January 2022.
In contrast to the HNIP scheme, the GHNF scheme will only fund heat network projects where there is a low-carbon heat source.
The government says the funding will pave the way for low-carbon technologies – such as air-source heat pumps, which extract heat from the air, solar, and geothermal energy – to be delivered at scale and established as a central source of energy.
Ken Hunnisett, programme director for Triple Point Heat Networks Investment Management, delivery partner for the GHNF and HNIP, said: “Continuing the legacy of the first GHNF projects to be announced in December, over £91m more targeted support has been announced from the fund today to deliver low carbon heating across the country.
“From Cornwall to London, Reading to Rotherham, funding announced today will go far to help us reach our net-zero ambitions and provide clean heating across residential and commercial buildings.
“We are excited to work with the teams in each of these locations to deliver these new heating infrastructure projects to help them deliver on their green goals and make a real difference to how we heat our buildings.”
Kieran Sinclair, heat network policy manager at the Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE), said: “It is great to see more low-carbon heat network projects being funded through the Green Heat Network Fund.
“They show the potential for heat networks across the UK to reduce both carbon emissions and customer heating bills, while providing clean energy to both public and private sector buildings.
“By 2050 a much larger proportion of the country will get their heat from low-carbon heat networks as part of the UK’s net-zero targets.”
The full list of projects to receive support from the government’s Green Heat Networks Fund are:
- Bradford Energy Limited will receive £20m to build an air source heat pump heat network to supply businesses and other buildings in the city centre
- Cornwall Council will receive £22m to develop the Langarth Deep Geothermal Heat Network
- East Riding of Yorkshire Council will receive £12m to create the new Goole District Energy Network, that will use waste heat from a manufacturing plant to power local homes and businesses
- Rotherham Energy Limited will receive £25m to build a new Rotherham Energy Network to deliver a heating and hot water to 34 homes and businesses in the town centre
- Kirklees Council will receive £8.2m to create the Huddersfield District Energy Network, that will provide low-carbon heat and electricity to public and private sector buildings in and around the centre of the town
- East London Energy will receive £1.76m to expand the heat network to supply more homes in and around the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford
- The University of Reading will receive £2.1m to help decarbonise its Whiteknights Campus, currently powered by a combined heat and power led district heating network
Image credit: Uladzimir Ogonek/Shutterstock
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