Bristol City Council will allocate of £5m in capital to fund the next phase of its district heating network. Mayor Marvin Rees approved the funding this week.
The council wants the city to become carbon neutral by 2050. It also wants residents to gain from its investment. Bristol has already launched a local energy company and has earmarked tens of millions of pounds to invest in local generation. As a municipal energy company, it can also sign power purchase agreements with local developers. That keeps the value in the local economy and should enable the city to keep energy prices low.
In the longer term, the city may look to invest in local distribution networks to play some form of demand balancing role, although current market rules may require a different structure to operate both local grids and a supply company should it pursue that avenue.
The heat network will take its heat from gas CHP and biomass plants around the city. Bristol intends to replace the gas fuel sources with renewables over time.
The first phase of the network has already been installed with 18 social housing blocks connected last year.
New biomass-fuelled heat centres were installed and connected to social housing blocks in 2015-16. Five blocks in Hartcliffe were connected to a 360kW wood pellet boiler supplying over 300 flats with low carbon heat and 13 blocks in Redcliffe.
By mandating that all new developments in the city’s heat priority areas must connect to the heat network unless it is technically unviable to do so, the council hopes to drive uptake of the scheme.
Related stories:
Local authorities launch municipal power companies
An energy manager’s approach to decarbonising heat in 26 cities
Local authorities say finance and procurement biggest hurdles to heat networks
Councils step up heat network plans
Free download: The Heat Report 2016
The heat is on, but which technologies will decarbonise heat at lowest cost?
Local Authorities must improve scoping to get heat networks funded
Government ‘has heat network numbers wrong’
Heatpumps, biomass and CHP top firms’ heat investments for 2016
Can Epsom salts solve heat storage conundrum?
Waste heat a wasted opportunity
75p/kWh subsidies for district heating?
Brussels increases focus on energy efficient heating and cooling
Decentralisation the key to heat networks?
Tim Rotheray: Put users at heart of energy policy or watch it fail
CHP behind 6% of UK electricity, could do more
Councils step up heat network plans
Firms with CHP generators could be paid to stop exporting power
Local Authorities say finance and public procurement biggest barrier to heat networks
Free report: Financing energy efficiency
Click here to see if you qualify for a free subscription to the print edition or to renew.
Follow us at @EnergystMedia. For regular bulletins, sign up for the free newsletter.
And when / if there is enough heat to “waste”, for commercial applications or high-end residential, add an absorption machine for cooling, or even to amplify and re-categorise the heat output.
I wish to join this conversation to explain how “Improving Heat Transfer” can deliver 20% – 35% gains in efficiency, cuts in CO2 emissions and significant savings on annual fuel costs. For details – http://www.energyeffective.co.uk….