Three Milton Keynes buildings set to join new zero carbon heat network

Milton Keynes Central Library, Woughton Leisure Centre and the Milton Keynes City Council’s Civic building are all set to join the network.

To prepare the buildings for connection to the network the council has received £4.35 million worth of funding from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, which is run by the Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero, and delivered by Salix.

Heat networks capture local sources of heat that would otherwise be wasted, such as from commercial data servers or the heat produced by processing waste.

In Milton Keynes, 133,000 tonnes of waste, which cannot be recycled, is processed at the council’s Waste Recycling Park each year.

The park creates electricity to power its fleet of electric waste collection vehicles, a process that generates heat.

As part of a heat network, heat generated by such a facility could be transferred to another building.

The UK Government has set a target for 17 per cent of the country’s heat to be provided through local heat networks by 2030.

The library, leisure centre and civic centre would form the first phase of the heat network in Milton Keynes, with heat for local homes to follow.

The city council will make a formal decision next month to approve the procurement process to enable the connection of the buildings to a heat network.

Cabinet member responsible for climate and sustainability at Milton Keynes City Council Shanika Mahendran said: “This is pioneering work that we are pleased to be able to fund through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme.

“A heat network would provide our city with clean and green heat so our facilities can be cheaper to run, local people can have affordable alternative to gas to heat their homes, and it would also be a significant step towards our aspiration to be net zero by 2030.”

Salix director of public sector decarbonisation Ian Rodger added: “Our teams look forward to working with the council in Milton Keynes, and we cannot wait to see how the local community will benefit from these measures.”

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