Leicester District Energy is a £15 million partnership between Cofely and Leicester City Council.
The scheme has already seen 7km of insulated pipework laid across the city and when fully complete, it will provide heating and hot water to 15 civic buildings including De Montfort Hall, the town hall and various schools, community centres and libraries. The scheme will also include the University of Leicester and close to 3,000 council homes.
It will use a combination of over 5 MW of low carbon gas-fired combined heat & power (CHP) and biomass boilers to achieve CO2 emission savings of 12,000 tonnes per annum. The University expects to consume 3.2MW of heating.
The first phase of Leicester District Energy, became operational in June 2012, with around 100 homes in Beatty Avenue, Humberstone. Burning wood pellets rather than gas, this will be one of the largest CO2 neutral projects in the UK once in full operation. The scheme will eventually connect St. Marks, St. Matthews, St. Andrews and Aikman Avenue estates across the city.
The Leicester District Energy scheme is being delivered through the Leicester District Energy Company, with an investment of £14M by Cofely and additional funding from the Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP).
Cofely District Energy Chief Executive Simon Woodward said: “We’re very excited to start operating the first phase of this prestigious scheme.
”We are proud to be partnering Leicester City Council in building what will be one of the largest city-wide district energy schemes in the UK, and are delighted that the University of Leicester has signed up to the scheme”
LEICESTER DISTRICT ENERGY – BENEFITS
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