Government has set out £54m in funding from the £320m of Heat Networks Investment Project to develop further heat networks.

Almost £28m will fund 2 innovative heat network projects in Haringey in London, with nearly £17m going to a project in Stewartby in Bedfordshire and a further £9m for one in Woking.

A heat network is a distribution system of insulated pipes that takes heat from a central source, such as large-scale heat pumps or heat recovered from industry and delivers it to a number of domestic or non-domestic buildings.

The projects receiving funding are:

  • Haringey London Borough Council has been awarded £27.8m funding for 2 heat network projects – Wood Green District Heating Network (£10.6m) and the Tottenham Hale and Broadwater Farm District Heating Network (£17.2m) – which will collectively supply heat to almost 10,000 homes when fully built out. Both heat networks will be supplied primarily by heat generated by the Energy Recovery Facility being built at the Edmonton Eco Park
  • Thamesway Energy Limited has been awarded over £9.4m for a major expansion to an existing heat network which supplies heat to public sector, commercial and residential customers in Woking town centre. The investment in new infrastructure will enable up to 3,450 new homes to be supplied as part of a major infrastructure scheme in the west and south of Woking
  • Vital Energi has been awarded £16.9m to develop a heat network using waste heat from the Rookery South Energy Recovery Facility, which is located in a former brick clay extraction pit near Stewartby in Bedfordshire. Up to 12,000 homes and non-domestic buildings could eventually be connected to the scheme

Minister for Business and Energy Lord Callanan said: “These projects will transform how tens of thousands of households and businesses keep their properties warm.

“By investing in cutting-edge low-carbon heating technologies we are helping to secure a lasting move away from using fossil fuels and protecting consumers from the costs that are driving up energy bills at a time of high global prices.”