Vattenfall and Midlothian Council have formed a 50:50 joint venture to build heat networks across the area.
The first project to delivered under the partnership will be a £20 million network supplying the new town of Shawfair, on the outskirts of Edinburgh.
The network will be fed with heat from an energy-from-waste plant near Millerhill operated by FCC Environment. The facility is owned by the councils in Midlothian and Edinburgh which, alongside East Lothian Council, supply the plant with residual waste for fuel. Midlothian Council will sign a 40-year agreement with the joint venture to provide heat to the public buildings due to be constructed at Shawfair.
Midlothian Council and Vattenfall said the network will be run at low temperatures down to around 50°C, making it more efficient and cheaper to operate and maintain than older, hotter networks.
This will also make it easier to incorporate heat pumps and allow the network to extract warmth from a variety of sources, including sewage works and data centres. They are working with the Coal Authority to investigate the potential to capture heat from minewater at the former Monktonhall Colliery.
Eoghan Maguire, director for Scotland and North UK at Vattenfall Heat UK, said: “Vattenfall’s aim is to enable a life free from fossil fuels within one generation, something we cannot do alone. To make this happen, we are working with organisations like Midlothian Council to decarbonise the heat sector, the single biggest contributor to UK carbon emissions.
“This exciting joint venture with Midlothian Council is a platform for further growth in low-carbon energy in Scotland and the UK. The innovative Shawfair development will bring low carbon heat network technology to Scotland, building on Vattenfall’s experience in constructing and operating some of Europe’s fastest growing heat networks.”
Last week, Vattenfall announced plans to anchor heat networks to Viridor’s fleet of energy-from-waste plants under a new partnership formed by the two companies.