Geothermal heating to reach social homes
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Southampton’s pioneering district heating network is expanding to a major city centre development of social housing.
The city’s geothermal heating plant is the largest of its kind in the country, and is now connecting to the Gantry development, which is being built by Atlantic Housing, and will provide 115 affordable flats.
Finance for the £650,000 project comes from the Homes and Communities Agency’s Low Carbon Infrastructure Fund.
The current scheme already saves the city more than 11,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, and expanding the scheme will save a further 190 tonnes a year. Connecting to the network will cut residents’ energy bills by about 10 per cent.
Southampton has been generating geothermal energy since the late 1980s. Initially the scheme provided heating and cooling to the civic centre, and it has now expanded to more than a thousand residential properties, office buildings, a hospital, a university, a large shopping centre, and the BBC television studios.
Matthew Dean, cabinet member for environment and transport at Southampton City Council, said: ‘This is a massive milestone in the city’s goal to grow our district heating scheme and provide sustainable energy to more businesses and homes.’
Kevin Bourner, head of area at the HCA, said: ‘Our support for this groundbreaking scheme will help provide more low carbon energy for Southampton’s new homes. But as well as saving tonnes of CO2 every year, residents will also see savings in their bills.’
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