Tuesday 29 January 2019

Bristol Council confirms first commercial heat network connection

Bristol City Council has announced its first commercial connection to its heat network.

The new connection will serve 375 new homes as part of Bristol's new Castle Park View housing development and provide heating to residents once the building is completed in 2022.

The council's existing heat network connects more than 1,000 social housing properties but this will be the first commercial connection to a privately developed site.

It will supply low carbon heat through a network of underground pipes from a number of energy centres, including a new gas combined heat and power (CHP) plant.

The council is also looking to install technologies including water source heat pumps, which capture heat from the floating harbour to supply hot water and space heating from the heat network and eventually, renewable alternatives.

Councillor Kye Dudd, Cabinet Member for Energy and Transport said: “It's great to see the council working closely with developers to deliver some much-needed affordable housing as well as solutions to help our city achieve carbon neutrality. We're in discussions with a number of new developers in the city centre and with supportive planning conditions in place we have high hopes that this connection will be the first of many.”