Greener Great Coxwell Community Energy
Greener Great Coxwell: inclusive, community solutions for de-carbonisation and ecological regeneration
Greener Great Coxwell works with :
Greener Great Coxwell Community Energy Project Feasibility Study Completed
▪ It is evident that a shared loop Heat Network could work at Great Coxwell (and similar villages)
▪ A shared loop system with wind generation would be most financially attractive for both network owner and homeowner
See the Bulletin Page for further information and downloadable copies of the Reports.
Greener Great Coxwell Community Energy
As part of their commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 the UK government intend to prohibit the installation of gas and oil boilers in all new domestic properties from 2025. Eventually all existing gas and oil boilers will have to be phased out and the Committee on Climate Change (the government’s independent advisor) has said that we will need to install new boilers that use clean hydrogen or electric powered heat pumps.
The Greener Great Coxwell group have been investigating a community owned, sustainable and secure energy project that would provide heating and hot water to the whole village. The system would replace existing boilers, help with fuel poverty, reduce carbon emissions and provide a revenue stream bringing further benefits to the village.
With your support, we believe the objectives of such a scheme could be to –
• Provide the same temperature of hot water and central heating as your existing oil or gas boiler at less cost.
• Provide a sustainable and reliable supply of renewable heat energy for decades to come.
• Help to cut the carbon footprint of the village contributing towards the UK’s 2050 Carbon Neutral goals.
How would the scheme work?
Our proposal is to use a ground source heating system powered by a solar installation or wind turbine. The options are to distribute high temperature water through an insulated pipe network from a central heat pump or to distribute low temperature water and boost the temperature at each property using individual heat pumps. Such District Heat Networks or Shared Loop networks are common on the continent and several are under construction or in planning locally, for example at North Aston and Upper Heyford in north Oxfordshire and at Swaffham in Cambridgeshire (https://heatingswaffhamprior.co.uk ). Households not wishing to participate would not be affected in any way.
To help with our understanding and potential for such a scheme, we became members of the Low Carbon Hub (https://www.lowcarbonhub.org/), the Oxfordshire organisation working to promote Community based and sustainable energy sources, and the South East Energy Hub (www.energyhub.org.uk), a collaboration of Local Enterprise Partnerships working to support local energy projects in south-east England. The latter provides grants for feasibility studies and business development via the Rural Community Energy Fund, which we would hope to take advantage of. We have also made contact with other projects including Heating Upper Heyford (https://heatupperheyford.wixsite.com/website), joined the Greater South East Energy Hub (https://www.energyhub.org.uk) and held discussions and taken expert advice from several renewable energy consultancies.
Our consultants Locogen, have determined that a network of this type is feasible but to making the economics viable would depend on generating our own energy. Energy produced from solar or wind could be sold on to the Grid but if it could be used to power the distributed heat pumps by, for example, installing a ‘private wire’ alongside the water network it would make the system far cheaper to run. At present a wind turbine located to the south-west of the village looks to be possible.
In summary :
▪ It is evident that a shared loop DHN could work at Great Coxwell (and
similar villages like it);
▪ A shared loop system with wind generation would be most
financially attractive for both network owner and homeowner;
▪ This option is also the costliest and some properties would need an upgraded grid connection;
▪ The payback does allow network owner to increase heat selling
tariff without increase payback periods too much;
▪ It would still require the 1MVA grid export capacity to allow an
additional source of revenue to be generated from wind
generation;
▪ This grid connection capacity represents the biggest development
risk at this stage;
Swaffham in Cambridgeshire is at an advanced stage with 163 households that are interested and over 150 are expected to sign up to an Energy Contract. If you wish to understand how the Swaffham scheme works in more detail then please look at their website – www.heatingswaffhamprior.co.uk .
For more information please click here or on the contact link above or e-mail energy@greenergreatcoxwell.com. Please go to the Bulletins Page to view or download the Consultants Reports.