UK’s first geothermal heat network wins funding

A scheme to warm thousands of Cornish homes with heat extracted from rocks more than 5 kilometres below the earth’s surface has been awarded £22 million of government funding.

The Langarth deep geothermal heat network – the first of its kind in the UK – is one of seven projects to receive a share of £91 million handed out from the government’s Green Heat Network Fund.

The system being developed by Cornwall Council will supply heat to 3,800 homes, several schools and a leisure centre from boreholes drilled to a depth of 5,275 metres into granite rocks below the United Downs industrial site.

The £288 million Green Heat Network Fund (GHNF) opened to applications from public, private and third-sector organisations in England in March 2022 and is expected to run until 2025.

In contrast to the Heat Network Investment Project (HNIP) that it replaced, the GHNF will only provide support to projects with a low-carbon heat source. The HNIP closed to applications in January 2022.

The other projects awarded funding:

• Bradford Energy will receive £20 million to build a heat network supplying businesses and other buildings in the city centre from air-source heat pumps
• East Riding of Yorkshire Council has been allocated £12 million to create the Goole District Energy Network to supply waste heat from a manufacturing plant to local homes and businesses
• Rotherham Energy has been awarded £25 million to build a heat network supplying waste heat from the Templeborough biomass power plant to homes and businesses in the town centre
• Kirklees Council has been granted £8.2 million to create the Huddersfield District Energy Network to supply heat recovered from a council-owned energy from waste plant to public and private buildings in and around the town centre
• East London Energy will be given £1.76 million to expand an existing heat network to supply more homes in and around the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford
• The University of Reading will receive £2.1 million to install a heat pump to decarbonise the existing heat network for its Whiteknights campus, which is currently supplied by combined heat and power generation

Commenting on the funding announcement, energy efficiency and green finance minister Lord Callanan said: “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.”

Ken Hunnisett, programme director for the GHNF and HNIP delivery partner Triple Point Heat Networks Investment Management, said:  “Continuing the legacy of the first GHNF projects to be announced in December, over £91 million 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.”