Newport City Council could explore new opportunities to develop a ‘heat network’ in the city centre, in a project which could provide low-cost energy from local industries.
Cabinet members have agreed to ask the UK Government for £850,000 to help plan a new heat network – a system which distributes heating from a central source to multiple buildings.
According to the government, these networks make use of heat which would otherwise go to waste, and they also avoid the need for each recipient to have their own boilers or electric heaters.
Cllr Yvonne Forsey, the council’s cabinet member for climate change, said heat networks were “effective… in high-density urban areas”, and there is “a strong technical, commercial and strategic case” to consider starting up a network in Newport.
“Grant funding would allow the council to progress the project from its current feasibility and outline business case stage to a fully-tested, investment-ready position, through to the development and final business case,” she told cabinet colleagues.
Cllr Forsey added the proposed city-centre network could “provide around 31 gigawatts of low-carbon heat annually”.
“I think it’s quite an exciting opportunity,” said Cllr Rhian Howells, adding a heat network could have “huge potential to decarbonise the city… especially given the types of industries we’ve already got around us, many of which are highly heat generating”.
She said it “seems like a bit of a no-brainer” to explore setting up a heat network to “harness” that industrial energy “rather than letting it escape into the atmosphere”.
The council leader, Cllr Dimitri Batrouni, added the scheme could also have financial benefits for residents at a time when “geopolitical troubles” meant heating bills are “not going to get cheaper any time soon”.
“We have the opportunity here for industry to heat people’s homes at low cost,” he said. “We all know the cost of living crisis, and we all know people are struggling to pay for it.”
Cllr Forsey added the request for £850,000 funding to further explore the project will be accompanied by an application for up to £10 million to help build the network, if it is eventually approved – but there is no obligation on the council to proceed.
A cabinet report also shows there is no cost to the council to submit the applications for this stage of the project.
