Two heat network projects in Hull and Peterborough will receive millions of funding from new low carbon incentive
The first awards to be made through the Green Heat Network Fund (GHNF) will see £27m provided to separate projects in Hull and Peterborough.
Applications for the GHNF opened last year with the aim to replace the Heat Network Investment Project (HNIP) with a specific focus on commercialising and building lower carbon district heat systems.
An overall budget for £288m has been set for the GHNF project that will aim to ramp up the use of low carbon networks that can incorporate technologies such as heat pumps, solar and geothermal energy sources. The GHNF will be managed by the Triple Point Heat Networks Investment management group that has also overseen the HNIP scheme.
Under the first round of funding for the project, £14.4 will be provided to the Peterborough Integrated Renewables Infrastructure group for a project that will burn non-recycled household waste as a source of heat and electricity.
A further £12.9m will be provided to the first phase of a project in Hull that is designed to reduce carbon emissions by 2,000 tonnes a year and provide 22 GWh of electricity from domestic and commercial waste for 46 public and private sector customers. The work forms part of Hull’s city-wide heat decarbonisation plan.
The government announced that an additional £2.6m in funding was also being provided to Wigan Council CIA the outgoing HNIP incentive to develop a ground source heat pump system as part of a wider £190m town centre redevelopment plan.
Energy Minister Lord Callanan said that the investments through the funding would be an important step to reduce national dependence on fossil fuels such as natural gas for heating.
He said: “I’m delighted to see that, through the Green Heat Network Fund, ground-breaking projects will be developed at pace to the benefit of communities, moving us away from soaring energy bills and delivering cheaper, greener energy.”
Ken Hunnisett, programme director for Triple Point Heat Networks Investment, said that both the projects receiving funds via the GHNF would serve to provide lower carbon heat to local communities.
He said: “Such has been the pace at which the new fund has launched that we are still announcing the late-stage successes of its predecessor, the Heat Network Investment Project.”
“The new network at the heart of the redeveloped Galleries Shopping Centre in Wigan will be delivering low carbon heat to retail, leisure, and residential premises within the next 3 years.”
