Community heating, district heating or heat networks all refer to a system that supplies heat from a central source to consumers, via a network of underground pipes carrying hot water. This avoids the need for individual boilers or electric heaters in every building. It provides an opportunity to shift whole communities away from fossil-fuel heating at scale.
The approach is particularly important for oil-based communities, who would be otherwise un-able to move away from oil dependency. There are around 10,000 such homes in Cambridgeshire, who would be unable to take advantage of any future changes to decarbonise the gas network.
Around 1/3 of carbon emissions in the UK are from heating. It is estimated by the UK's Committee on Climate Change that around 18% of UK heat will need to come from heat networks by 2050 if the UK is to meet its carbon targets cost effectively.
While heat networks may be fuelled from a range of sources, we are only looking at low carbon solutions.
Community heating can aid in a rage of other environmental and social challenges being faced including: air pollution, fuel poverty and providing equitable transition to a low carbon future.
The council is exploring how we can support our communities to shift away from oil, and are working with a number of villages to develop projects, the most advanced is in the East Cambridgeshire village of Swaffham Prior.