£21million will be spent on the system, which will expand on existing infrastructure to slash carbon emissions up to 81%.
Delivered by Energy1, construction on the project will begin in 2026 providing community approval and planning permission are both secured. Funding has come from the UK Government, with a number of major institutions in the city already engaged in the scheme.
Oxford City Council, Oxfordshire County Council, Zero Carbon Oxfordshire Partnership [COP], Oxford Brookes University and the University of Oxford are all on-side, with these organisations targeted due to their high emissions. Around 15,000 tonnes of carbon output could be saved, and the city would see fossil fuel reliance fall by 10%.
Air pollution, a major side-effect of traditional heating systems, would also improve significantly. As a result, atmospheric pollutants would fall by an estimated 5%. Meanwhile, energy bills would come down as some of the UK’s most treasured and historic Grade I listed structures get a huge boost to their efficiency ratings with the removal of old boilers.
‘Oxford is already at the very forefront of city decarbonisation and low carbon energy through the work of the University, and the Zero Carbon Oxfordshire Partnership and its constituent members,’ said Andrew Wettern, CEO of 1Energy.
‘We are thrilled to add to this success by enabling the city to decarbonise heat through the Oxford Energy Network,’ he continued. ‘Oxford has more than 1500 listed buildings across the city, so the decarbonisation challenge for Oxford is much harder than many other cities. The Oxford Energy Network matches perfectly to the challenge because it will be invisible and silent, it will supply the temperatures required by these historic buildings to maintain their warmth in the winter, and it will be easier and cheaper for customers to connect to the network than to create their own low-carbon heat onsite.’
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