In a UK first, thousands of homes are set to be kept warm courtesy of the waste heat from large computer systems storing internet data.
Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation has secured £36mn in government funding through the Green Heat Network Fund for a heat network that will support 10,000 new homes and 250,000m2 of commercial space. It is one of five to receive funding, with others including £21mn for Lancaster University’s drive to decarbonise its campus with a new low carbon heat network where heat is supplied through a large heat pump powered itself by a new solar farm and existing wind turbine.
The London Borough of Brent has received £5.2mn for the South Kilburn District Heat Network. This will see heat supplied from air source heat pumps combined with back up gas boilers to 34 sites through a 2.79km pipe network, connecting 2,900 customers.
Elsewhere, Watford Community Housing has been awarded £1.8mn to replace an old gas district heating system with ground source and air source heat pumps, supplying heat to 252 apartments across six blocks, while £745,000 is to help a new heat pump housing estate in Suffolk deliver low carbon heating to almost 1,000 homes and a primary school. This is set to include a thermal store, through which any excess energy generated by the system will then be fed back into the grid.
