£3m boost for low-carbon projects
LOW-CARBON energy projects across the West Midlands are to receive almost £3 million in new government funding.
The new capital, which will attract match funding, has been announced to support the schemes in Staffordshire, Sandwell and Coventry.
They are part of a wider investment worth £90 million into nine projects across the country.
The West Midlands projects will link energy supply, storage and use, and design ways to power heating and transport aimed at dramatically improving efficiency and reduce costs to local residents.
Rugeley
The aim is to bring smart energy to Rugeley and transform the site of the town’s former power station by demolishing it and creating a sustainable village.
Around 2,300 new homes and other eco-friendly buildings are planned for the site which it is hoped will set the standard for similar projects across the UK to transition to zero carbon. Residents will benefit from thermal storage units instead of traditional gas boilers alongside geothermal energy from local canals and disused mine shafts. Energy Capital, a public-private partnership working on energy infrastructure, is a member of the consortium behind the project, which is led by the site’s owner Engie.
Sandwell
A project in Sandwell could see it become the home to a new smart energy grid which would channel waste heat generated by industry to heat homes and businesses.
It would also integrate with a smart power grid to support modern transport such as electric vehicles. A study is being conducted in London to determine if such a system could successfully decarbonise urban heating by considering heat, power and transport together as one energy challenge.
Findings from this study will be applied to Sandwell where £35 million is potentially being invested into new district energy schemes to determine if the Black Country borough could also use this approach to drive down energy costs and carbon emissions.
Coventry
The Regional Energy System Operator project is aiming to help the city decarbonise and keep energy costs down by creating a local energy market. The hope is that Coventry residents will be able to benefit from reduced energy prices, increased jobs and investment, and clean growth.
Working with the city council, the project explores ways of generating and storing low-carbon energy on a city-wide scale, such as harnessing unused energy in electric vehicles as well as integrating large-scale, cleanenergy assets.
This project is being match-funded by global company and project partner Enzen. Plans are being drawn up to design similar systems for east Birmingham and north Solihull, home to nearly 300,000 people. The West Midlands Combined Authority has been championing the projects as part of its mission to make the region carbon neutral by 2041.
Mayor Andy Street said: “As the birthplace of the industrial revolution, the West Midlands has a moral responsibility to lead the fight against climate change. A key part of this is going to be our clean growth sector and how we support businesses within the sector to innovate and create the technologies needed to help our region become carbon neutral no later than 2041.
“I am delighted the Government has recognised the region’s potential to lead the UK in these state-of-theart carbon neutral technologies and I am sure these three projects will help make a real difference to the climate change agenda, both here in the West Midlands and across the country.”