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We are delighted to have been appointed to deliver a new project for Newport City Homes which will see us install 7.5km of district heating pipework to replace the original heat network which was installed in the early 1970’s.

The existing system experienced a series of leaks in early 2023 which saw significant disruption to heating and hot water supplies. The association pledged to carry out a full review of the performance of the district heating system at the time and has now announced a substantial programme of pipe replacement work to improve performance for the local community.

Sonia Furzland, Executive Director of Operations at Newport City Homes, said: “We’re pleased to announce this substantial investment in the Duffryn district heating system to upgrade the pipework and improve heating and hot water performance to more than 1,000 customers.

“We’d like to thank our customers for the substantial support and patience during the leaks we experienced earlier this year, and over the last few months as we have carried out this urgent review. We hope this gives the community assurance that we are taking action in response to the issues we have seen.”

Work to upgrade the Duffryn district heating system is expected to begin in Autumn 2023 and take a number of months.

The Duffryn heating system is supported by over seven kilometres of pipework which runs underneath the ground. This includes underneath main roads, NCH homes and privately owned homes, and it was originally put in place during the 1970s. Work will take place in planned phases to minimise disruption of supply to the community.

Ashley Walsh (Managing Director of Heat Networks) at Vital Energi added:

“For nearly 50 years this scheme has provided heating and hot water to the people of Duffryn and this upgrade will safeguard this essential service for decades to come, making the heat network more reliable and more efficient.  We are delighted to be delivering 7.5km of pipework on the project and also look forwards to working with the local community on some exciting community engagement projects.”

 

The energy crisis means the UK’s first direct wired solar farm developed to power a hospital will generate far greater savings than could have been predicted. It went live in October last year and is expected to produce a fifth of Morriston Hospital’s energy consumption every year.

Even during the winter months there have been days when it has generated enough to power the entire hospital – and on occasions with electricity to spare to export to the National Grid. This is despite only operating during the shortest days of the year.

The £5.7m solar farm was built thanks to a loan scheme set up by the Welsh Government to decarbonise the public sector by 2030, and is repayable on an invest to save basis. It is estimated that the hospital has already saved an estimated £120,000 in electricity bills since it was switched on in November, and is projected to save 1000 tonnes of carbon and £500,000 per year in bills when fully operational. It has already produced 30,000 kWh surplus energy that’s been sold back to the energy grid at a profit to the hospital.

Visiting the 4MW project on Brynwhillach Farm, which is linked to Morriston by a 3km private wire, Minister for Climate Change Julie James said:

“We want our energy to come from community owned and locally run renewable energy sources in Wales. This will ensure our supply is resilient, reliable and reasonable for both our planet and our pockets.

“We have bold ambitions to decarbonise the public sector by 2030. Morriston Hospital – which depends not only on the powers of its staff, but also the energy hungry machines to keep their patients alive and well – have blazed the trail in their switch to renewables, which makes sense both financially and to the health of the people of Wales.

“Our addiction to fossil fuels is proving harmful, volatile and no longer viable. In Wales we will continue to accelerate our investment in renewable energy and energy efficient measures such as those adopted at Morriston hospital, and call on the UK Government to support a socially just transition to Net Zero as we respond to the climate emergency.

“The IPCC have rung the clarion call for our planet, now we must listen and respond to the science.”

Chair of Swansea University Health Board, Emma Woollett, said:

“I am delighted that the solar farm’s performance has already exceeded our initial expectations. The health board’s aim is to reduce its carbon footprint and maximise opportunities to use renewable energy sources.

“The solar farm will play an important part in achieving that aim, but there is also an additional benefit in terms of cost savings. It is not only lowering our electricity costs every day, but on some days covering 100% of our electricity needs.

“With the current volatile situation with energy prices, this really shows that the investment and the long-term thinking on behalf of the health board has paid off.”

Since being switched on, the 10,000-panel solar farm has produced enough energy to power 190 three-bedroom houses for a year, or to boil almost 200,000 kettles.

The four megawatt farm was anticipated to reduce the hospital’s electricity bill by around £500,000 a year. But with world energy prices spiralling, the actual savings could be almost double that figure.

A few years back, Swansea Bay University Health Board was awarded £13.6 million, on an invest-to-save basis, to bring down its energy costs and reduce its carbon footprint by around 5,000 tonnes a year. The money was awarded through Re:Fit, a national programme, supported by the Welsh Government. Following an extensive selection process, the health board selected Vital Energi as its partner.

Phase one, a range of energy conservation measures at Morriston and Singleton hospitals and other health board premises, was completed last year at a cost of £7.7 million. The solar farm, developed on a 14-hectare site at a cost of £5.9 million, comprised the second phase.

Swansea Bay’s Assistant Director of Operations, Des Keighan, said the hospital previously used around 20 gigawatts of electricity a year.

“The first phase of energy saving measures reduced the hospital energy demand to 16 gigawatts a year,” he said.

“The solar farm will reduce the need to import energy from the grid by a further four gigawatts over the course of a year.

“It was expected that over the winter months the solar farm would contribute electricity, but that the hospital would still need to continue to buy power from the grid every day. What has come as a pleasant surprise is that for a total of 50 hours, the hospital has been entirely powered by the solar farm, and nearly 30,000 kilowatts sold back to the National Grid. This is despite the fact that the solar farm hasn’t been operating continually over the winter.

“It has still been undergoing tests and fine-tuning, and is not due to be completely finished until the end of March. So this additional performance has been even more of a bonus.”

Since October, the solar farm has produced 598,000 kWh (kilowatts an hour) of energy. That is enough to:

• Power 190 three-bedroom houses for a year;
• Boil 196,333 kettles;
• Power 4,496 55-inch TVs or 196 washing machines for a year;
• Drive a Tesla Model Y car 2,103,571 miles.

But it doesn’t end there. Factor in the first phase energy saving measures and the overall drop in electricity demand from October until February at Morriston is nearly 1.5 million kilowatts. That is sufficient to:

• Power 484 three-bedroom houses for a year;
• Boil 500,000 kettles, power 11,450 TVs or 500 washing machines for a year;
• Drive the same Tesla car 5,357,143 miles.

Mr Keighan said the value of the savings was also expected to be considerably higher than expected because the world situation meant energy prices were increasingly so rapidly.

“When this started, electrical prices were around 13p per kilowatt hour (kWh) from the Grid,” he said.

“This morning it was 25p per kWh. That’s not far off doubled, with prices expected to increase over the coming weeks.

“We want to extend the solar farm by installing another 1MW of solar panelling and also install 2MWh battery for storage

“We get two to three pence per kW if we export. And at the moment electricity from the Grid is costing us around 25p a KWh and from April that could be as high as 50p. So using it ourselves makes far more sense and we are trying to secure funding for that, and we hope that will be the next stage.”

Additionally, the solar farm will save around 1,000 tonnes of carbon a year, on top of the 4,000 tonnes saved by the first phase

Mersey Heat Energy Centre Officially Opens

The Mersey Heat Energy Centre has officially opened and, in a North West first, will now begin heating the multi-billion-pound Liverpool Waters Development with heat extracted from the Leeds/Liverpool Canal.

This milestone marks a new phase in the Mersey Heat Network, bringing low-carbon heating to the people, businesses and buildings of Liverpool.

The project is now serving well-known properties such as the Titanic Hotel and Tobacco Warehouse, and looking ahead, the network has the potential to serve up to 17,000 homes across Liverpool.

The event was hosted by Ener-Vate, trusted commercial consultants in the low-carbon energy sector and lead developer of the scheme on behalf of The Peel Group, leading investors in infrastructure, transport, and real estate. We’re proud to have formed a collaborative partnership with both organisations to deliver this latest addition to Liverpool’s low-carbon infrastructure.

Since we were appointed in 2019 to design, build, and maintain the project, the team has made remarkable progress, working in partnership to complete the state-of-the-art energy centre, and its supporting heat network.

However, our efforts extend beyond construction. From the outset, community engagement has been a core priority and will remain so through the next phases and beyond.

The official opening was marked by the presence of key stakeholders, including Councillor Liam Robinson, leader of Liverpool City Council, and Councillor Anthony Burns, Leader of St Helens Borough Council and Net Zero Cabinet Leader for the Liverpool City Region, who attended to witness and celebrate the milestone event.

For more information on the technologies used on the project, take a look at the case study here.

Leeds City Council and Vital Energi were delighted to welcome Lord Callanan, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Energy Efficiency and Green Finance), to the award-winning Leeds PIPES heat network on Thursday (3rd August) to learn more about how it has transformed the city’s carbon emissions and plans for its expansion.

The Minister visited several landmarks and connections on the network including the Recycling & Energy Recovery Facility (RERF), Cross Green energy centre and St James’s Hospital where he met members from the NHS Estates and Facilities team. Lord Callanan also visited Shakespeare Towers to meet residents connected to the Heat Network.

By using heat recovered from non-recyclable waste at the Recycling and Energy Recovery Facility (RERF) and distributing it throughout the city via a 26.5km district heating network, the Leeds PIPES project is helping just under 2,000 homes, businesses, and 12 non-residential buildings, including the Town Hall, Leeds Playhouse and Museum. The network has enabled these buildings to move away from costly heating systems, providing them with affordable, reliable, and low-carbon heat and hot water.

Last year, the network of insulated underground pipes supplied 22,029 megawatt-hours of heating in total and helped reduce the city’s carbon footprint by 3,975 tonnes.

Work is currently underway at St James’s University Hospital, the latest major connection to the network.

Craige Richardson, Executive Director of Estates and Facilities at Leeds Teaching Hospitals, said: “We were delighted to show Lord Callanan the changes we are making to the Trust estate to ensure we meet the NHS 2040 net zero target. We recognise that if we are to provide the best possible care to our patients and improve their quality of life, we need to reduce our environmental impact. Decarbonising our estate is a key priority for the Trust and the connection to Leeds PIPES is taking us closer to achieving this”.

New plans for two major extensions to the award-winning network—which would enable dozens more buildings to connect—have also been published by the local authority and discussed by senior members in recent weeks.

The four latest buildings, including the first private-sector residential developers, which have confirmed their intention to connect to the network within the next 12 months are:

• Spinner’s Yard around Mabgate, developed by Rise Homes
• Leonardo and Thoresby buildings on Gt George Street, developed by McLaren on behalf of Arrow Leonardo
• The redevelopment of Leeds Technology Campus on Cookridge Street, developed by Metropolitan & District Securities
• Leeds Conservatoire on Quarry Hill

Separately, senior councillors have recently approved an application for up to £20 million of grant funding that, if successful, would enable two major new extensions to the existing network.

The first new extension would see another 600m (0.4 miles) of pipes laid from Little Queen Street to Wellington Street. A second new extension, located in the South Bank of the city centre, would see approximately 7 km (4.3 miles) of low carbon heat network being installed from Clarence Road to Sweet Street and eventually connecting to the existing Leeds PIPES infrastructure. Subject to funding and final approval, construction of the extensions could begin as soon as 2024 with works completing in 2026.

Work to develop the detailed project plans and business cases required to secure funding for and construct the new extensions is currently underway, after the council successfully secured £154,000 of grant funding from the government’s Heat Network Development Unit earlier this year.

Buildings and developments located near the underground pipe infrastructure can choose to connect at any time and the council is currently in discussions with around 40 potential customers. A new website for the Leeds PIPES project was recently launched to help raise awareness of the many different benefits for residents, developers, and building managers.

Our apprentices have had a fantastic 2023, picking up bursaries and awards and the latest to make a splash at the national level is Megan Bradley, who has been named as one of the three finalists at the ACR & Heat Pumps Trainee of the Year Awards. 

Meg, who works as an Intermediate Electrical Engineer within our Heat Pumps Team, has been shortlisted in the Project Engineer category and will now travel to the Emirates Old Trafford Cricket Ground for an awards luncheon where they will reveal the national winner. 

This is the 7^th annual ACR Trainee Awards, and in 2023 they have been expanded to embrace heat pumps as a sector, highlighting their increasing importance to the UK’s energy mix. 

We’d like to wish Megan, and all her fellow finalists every success. 

The UK can only meet it’s net zero commitments if we continue to recruit and train our future generations, so we were delighted to be invited to two events recently to promote careers in green energy.

Vital Energi’s Head of Marketing, Abby Whitelock, was invited back to her alma mater, Merchant Taylor’s School for a careers evening.  Abby was joined by Resource Manager, Jenny Pickup and the pair were able to meet students, answer questions, and talk through the many routes into a green energy career.

Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees and Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan visited the site of the new Castle Park Water Source Heat Pump project which will revolutionise how the city generates low-carbon heat.

The 3MW water source heat pump will be the largest project of its kind in England and will take water from the nearby floating harbour and use it to generate heat and hot water for local businesses and residents.

The heat pump will be housed in an energy centre which will have a mixed-use development built above it.  When operational it will contribute low carbon heat to the Bristol Heat Network which already supplies over 1,000 properties.

Both mayors toured the site, received a project briefing from Project Director Hugh Thompson and learned more about how the heat pump will take water from the nearby harbour and convert it into useable heat and hot water.