A partnership in the South East will mean that a new heating network will significantly reduce CO2 emissions across two developments. Christopher Brown reports.
The heating network will serve both the new community of Cranbrook and the £120m Skypark development, significantly reducing CO2 emissions across both developments and helping them reach higher standards of sustainability. This scheme could also make Cranbrook one of the first low carbon communities in the Uk to deliver Combined Heat and Power (CHP) to all residents.
A district heating network using renewable energy is one of the most efficient ways of delivering low carbon housing schemes such as Cranbrook in East Devon; however such schemes require significant capital investment at the outset. This cost has so far been out of reach for house builders. A combination of £3.7m grant funding from the Homes and Communities Agency’s (HCA) Low Carbon Infrastructure Fund (announced last year) and further contributions of £400,000 from the local authority partners, together with significant investment from E.ON, St Modwen and Cranbrook’s developers, has successfully bridged the funding gap enabling this scheme to go ahead. Exeter and East Devon Growth Point Chairman and East Devon District Councillor Ray Franklin, explains why this scheme, which has been described as an exemplar large scale CHP, is so ground breaking: “What we are actually doing is rewriting the blueprint for how developments are built and how energy can be supplied. We will be one of the first, if not the first local authority in the country to build a mass open market development with district heating from day one.” A biomass district heating scheme for the first 2900 homes at Cranbrook could provide an estimated, 10,000 tones of C02 savings a year and could set a precedent for all national house builder to follow. Further good news was received on Tuesday last week when East Devon District Council approved planning permission for the schemes energy centre which is to be built on the site of the Skypark development near Exeter Airport (subject to the signing of a section 106 agreement). The Energy Centre building will be innovative in its design and is set to achieve the highest standards of environmental ratings for buildings. |
