Yorkshire Energy Park key to new sustainable heating network

Sewell Investments project Yorkshire Energy Park has been boosted by £22m in funding, awarded to partners Vital Energi to construct a low carbon heating network for Hull.

Yorkshire Energy Park partner Vital Energi has been awarded over £22 million from the Green Heat Network Fund for the commercialisation and construction of the Hull East District Heat Network. The heat network presents an innovative use of waste heat from industry, with Phase 1 utilising heat from the Saltend Chemicals Park.

The heat network will provide low carbon heating to 14 public sector council buildings and a mixture of industrial customers, helping to decarbonise one of the UK’s industrial hotspots. As part of the network, Hull East are also hoping to secure green solar energy to help power the network whilst feeding energy into other customers across Yorkshire Energy Park, a next generation energy and technology business park currently in development.

Construction of the heat network is expected to begin later in 2024, with the heat network capable of expanding to supply further connections and using other renewable heat sources across the energy park once completed.

Mike Cooke , Managing Director, Vital Energi:
“We’re delighted with the award of the Green Heat Network Funding which will allow us to deliver the Hull East Heat Network. Taking waste heat from Saltend Chemicals Park situated on the Yorkshire Energy Park, we aim to decarbonise commercial and residential buildings across Hull, bringing them closer to a net zero future with low carbon heat and hot water.”

The Green Heat Network Fund (GHNF), delivered by Triple Point Heat Networks Investment Management on behalf of the Government, delivers an additional £80.6 million to heat networks in the North of England, London and the South West. Funding is being awarded to projects, like Hull East Heat Network, harnessing waste heat energy from industry.

An abundance of waste energy is generated in various industrial processes as well as in our daily activities. Manufacturing and human waste disposal processes produce waste heat as a byproduct which can be harnessed to produce low-cost, low carbon heating. Today, funding from the Green Heat Network Fund (GHNF) continues to enable innovative solutions like these to be deployed.

Yorkshire Energy Park is set to be the UK’s first freeport-based energy and technology business park. The Humber is the home for the future of green innovation and YEP has a key part to play. YEP is located within the proposed Humber Freeport and adjacent to the UK’s busiest port complex, within the new East Coast carbon capture cluster, and in the heart of the UK’s Energy Estuary. Together, these benefits will build a park that not only delivers renewable energy, battery storage and state-of-the-art digital infrastructure but also an on-site educational campus with space for research and development in partnership with the University of Lincoln, University of Hull and CATCH.