Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation announces partnership with Hemiko to provide low carbon energy to more than 9,000 new homes and businesses
The Mayor of London’s development corporation tasked with regenerating a 650-hectare site in West London has announced a new partnership with leading heat network utility provider Hemiko.
Photo by Alex Vasey / Unsplash
Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) was established in 2015 and plans to build 25,500 new homes over the next two decades and create 65,000 new jobs through redevelopment and attracting businesses to the area. The area includes Old Oak Common (which spans the London boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham, Brent and Ealing) and the Park Royal industrial site.
Now, OPDC is partnering with Hemiko to design, deliver, fund and operate a new low carbon heat network. In a first for the UK, this will draw waste heat from the cooling suystems of nearby data centres and use to provide low-cost energy to more than 9,000 new homes and businesses as well as existing buildings such as Central Middlesex Hospital.
Hemiko has already developed and operates urban heat networks for commercial, residential and mixed-use developments across the UK, including the Greenwich Peninsula regeneration in London. It is currently building a new network in Worthing in West Sussex.
The first phase of the new OPDC heat network is anticipated to deliver up to 95GWh of heat per year – the equivalent, it says, of boiling 1bn kettles.
The network will then expand over five phases between 2028 and 2040 to serve the wider OPDC regeneration area.
In 2023, OPDC was awarded £36m from the government’s Green Heat Network Fund and last year was announced as one the UK’s first heat network zones, designated by government for this low cost, low carbon method of heating. The Mayor of London’s local energy accelerator (LEA) programme (co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund) and green finance programme provided an additional £1.7m to fund the technical and commercialisation work needed to develop the commercial case for the network.
Hemiko will now invest £63m in the first phases, which will build to some £600m by 2040.
David Lunts, Chief Executive Officer at OPDC, says: ‘OPDC’s innovative new heat network is leading the way in developing greener and cheaper energy for thousands of residents in West London. With heat network specialist Hemiko now confirmed as our delivery partner, we are excited to be working together to progress the design and delivery of our heat network and to delivering a cleaner, more sustainable energy supply for West Londoners.’
Toby Heysham, Chief Executive Officer at Hemiko, adds: ‘We are so pleased to be investing in and delivering an innovative new heat network in partnership with OPDC. The heat network will enable the creation of low carbon, low pollution neighbourhoods in London. By taking surplus heat from local data centres, we don’t need to burn gas in the middle of a city to heat people’s homes, with the right infrastructure we can take local waste heat and offer it to local people, while offering local jobs at the same time.
‘There is enough surplus and wasted heat in London to heat the whole city – we just need heat networks to access it. With the announcement of OPDC’s heat network hot on the heels of the South Westminster Area Network (SWAN), London is leading the race to host this multi-billion-pound industry that will drive green growth in the UK.’
In related news:
Leave a Reply