2024 has been an incredible year for the heat network industry. We awarded £190.2 million to heat network projects across England through the Green Heat Network Fund (GHNF). We also wrapped up funding awards under the scheme’s predecessor, the Heat Networks Investment Project (HNIP), with a final £9.8 million to three schemes.
So far under the GHNF, our support will help to decarbonise heating for over 74,000 residents, while saving enough carbon emissions to mark the equivalent of grounding 11,625 one-way flights from London to New York!
Looking back on a busy year
2023 concluded on a high as the Government announced an additional £485 million for GHNF. This substantial investment is set to expand the heat network market and help decarbonise up to 60,000 extra homes and buildings.
This momentum carried into 2024 as we published our first funding announcement of the year. A significant £80 million was allocated to a handful of heat networks leveraging innovative waste heat technology as a low carbon, renewable heating source. Among these, £11 million was awarded to harness waste heat from Bolton’s sewer system which runs through the town centre.
2024 was also a year for reflection. Early in the year, we hosted two events as part of our Look Back series which revisited some of our successful HNIP schemes funded between 2019 and 2022. These events helped to showcase successful commercialisation strategies adopted by our older and more developed projects while sharing lessons learned along the way. Highlights included valuable insights from the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea which demonstrated the critical role of community involvement and local-level engagement in driving the adoption of low carbon technologies.
As the year progressed, another two major funding announcements were made, totalling a staggering £79 million to support projects delivering low carbon heating to a further 17,000 homes and buildings. Most recently, a press release last month highlighted funding for heat networks in Birkenhead, Hampshire and Loughborough. Among these, the Newhurst heat network, delivered by Vital Energi, aims to supply 42GWh of low carbon heat annually and other buildings across the town and campus in the future.
As the year drew to a close, we announced the final projects to be successful under the HNIP. In this announcement, Gateshead Council received support to extend their innovative mine water powered scheme to further low-rise social housing estates across town. In Islington, HNIP is supporting a groundbreaking initiative to harness waste heat from the local London Underground station, while E.ON received funding for an ambitious decarbonisation project in Silvertown using their ectogrid™ technology.
To finish the year, we hosted our inaugural Market Transformation Commitment Project Showcase. The event spotlighted GHNF funded projects driving supply chain growth, fostering open procurement, creating green jobs, and delivering meaningful social benefits to local communities. Presentations from three stand out projects highlighted how these efforts are shaping the future of the heat network sector.
What’s next for 2025?
This year marked a significant milestone as DESNZ launched the first heat network zoning maps. The maps identify current and future zones where heat networks will be deemed as the lowest-cost, low carbon option for decarbonising high-density areas. The GHNF, alongside other public and private sector investment, will play a pivotal role in driving the expansion of heat network coverage across the country. We remain committed to supporting the development of a thriving and resilient heat network market – an essential step towards achieving the UK’s ambitious target of heat networks providing 20% of the nation’s heating needs.
Looking ahead we will continue to support our existing projects to grow the supply chain, address the heat network skills gap, and share innovations and learnings with the wider market. At the same time, we will also continue enabling new projects through the GHNF, to deliver affordable low carbon heating to homes and buildings at scale.
