Newcastle City Council is assessing plans to use the city’s iconic River Tyne to heat local homes and businesses.
Water from the river could heat new homes and businesses at the Forth Yards development using heat pump technology.
The council's climate change committee heard a proposal outlining how a district heating network could be a viable low-carbon alternative to individual ground and air source heat pumps for each property.
How will the River Tyne heat homes?
District heating is when heat is generated at a central source, usually with hot water or steam circulated to homes and other nearby buildings using insulated pipes. The largest cover entire cities such as Stockholm in Sweden or Flensburg in Germany, using a network of large pipes.
However, this scheme would use a water source heat pump, which consists of a series of fluid-filled submerged pipes that extract heat from a river, lake, large pond or borehole and deliver heating and hot water to nearby buildings.
The proposals could see water taken from the river and heat energy extracted from it before the water is then returned.
Councillors heard while a heat network using the Tyne would be expensive to install, it could prove more cost-effective than other low carbon technology over the long-term.
How many homes will be heated?
A development framework for the Forth Yards site states it could deliver 2,500 new homes, offices, leisure, and other associated properties.
In the future, the council will assess the river’s potential for heat supply for a heat network, gather technical development information for an energy centre and network, and undertake techno-economic and financial modelling.
Other UK cities have also used similar schemes such as Bristol have installed the largest water source heat pump in the UK at a cost of £300 million as part of their Bristol City Leap scheme, which will provide power for 12,000 homes.
The installation by Swedish multinational power company Vattenfall Heat will increase Bristol's heat pump infrastructure to create a single Bristol Heat Network by working with Bristol City Council.
‘Groundbreaking’ system could cut carbon emissions by 1,000 tonnes each year
The multi-million-pound scheme has been labelled as the first of its type in the UK that will bring lasting benefits to the region.
Newcastle City Council outlined the benefits of the scheme, stating: "By efficiently extracting and converting heat into usable energy, this groundbreaking district heating system supplies hot water to a range of buildings."
Councillors say it will cut annual carbon emissions by 1,035 tonnes.
