Welcome to the first newsletter for Sharenergy’s Community Heat Development Unit (CHDU) project. We’re aiming to use these newsletters to keep you updated with the progress of the project so please keep reading!
Community Heat Development Unit (CHDU) Project
As this is the first newsletter from Sharenergy’s CHDU team we’d like to remind you of what we are trying to achieve. The CHDU project is aiming to produce a replicable technical and business model that can be used by potential and existing community energy groups wanting to develop heat networks for community ownership. The project is taking a data-driven approach, using GIS, EPC and demographic data to identify localities where community owned heat networks stand the greatest chance of success in the UK while evidencing this with case studies. Sharenergy’s partners for the project are Community Energy England, to help us connect with community groups, and the Marches Energy Agency, to support and advice on insulation retrofit and building fabric assessment.
We are in the process of setting up a homepage for this project here: [LINK].
CHDU Launch Event
Community Energy professionals from across the UK met on 12th October for the launch of Sharenergy’s innovative CHDU project. Thank you to those who attended! Presentations from Sharenergy CEO, Jon Hallé, and Development Manager, Dave Green, outlined the project context with descriptions of existing and in-development community owned heat networks, including the Bishop’s Castle Community Heat Network project. The event also provided the opportunity to have valuable discussions with attendees covering community engagement, building fabric upgrades, as well as insights into some of the barriers faced when developing a community heat network.
You can read more about the event on the Sharenergy website
Welcome to the Team
Sharenergy is pleased to welcome Ben Cannell to the development team this month. Ben has a background in engineering holding an MEng in Civil Engineering from the University of Bristol and has spent the last 11 years working within the energy sector, mostly performing analyses of nuclear reactor components and developing software to design offshore wind turbines. Following a period of cycle touring in 2023 he is excited to join Sharenergy and the CHDU project.
National Grid Net Zero Communities Forum – South Wales
Fran and Ben attended the National Grid Net Zero Communities Forum in Carmarthen this month. Fran presented the CHDU and Bishop’s Castle heat network projects to the room of community energy groups and professionals.
It was great to hear more about community energy project successes in South Wales and meet with colleagues across the industry. There were some insightful discussions about community heat network business models, funding opportunities and previous projects and we’re looking forward to the publication of National Grid’s new Communities Heat Guide soon! National Grid’s attendance helped improve our awareness of their published datasets and how these could be applied to the CHDU project. Our ears pricked up at the interesting suggestion of combining heat network installations with National Grid ground works to share capital expenditure!
TV
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall spoke at a public meeting held at Bishop’s Castle earlier in the year, as part of the Community Heat Network project (see the project page on this website, or Sharenergy’s facebook page for more info). This was aired on the 21st November but you can watch a repeat on the Channel 4 website here.
Community Heat Network Forum
We’d like to create a space where your ideas and experiences of community heat networks can be discussed so please keep your eye out for the launch of Sharenergy’s community heat network forum in a future newsletter.